FanHouse

When the White Sox traded for Orlando Cabrera this off-season, their was some questioning of the move amongst White Sox fans. The biggest problem most Sox fans had with it was that the team had sent it's most consistent starter over the previous few seasons, Jon Garland, to the Angels to get him. The other worrisome part of the trade was that Cabrera was entering the final year of his contract, so basically the Sox gave up their best pitcher for a guy they were probably only going to have for a season.

Well, Jon Garland is still Jon Garland for the Angels, but the Sox pitching staff has performed so well this season that losing him hasn't stung at all. Meanwhile Cabrera is acting like somebody who's more worried about his impending free agency than the fact that his team is in first place. There have already been two instances this season in which Orlando has called the press box to argue about errors that were attributed to him, once in Toronto and once at U.S. Cellular Field.

Never one to keep his opinion to himself, Ozzie Guillen had a little chat with his shortstop about such behavior.

''If things continue to happen, I'm not going to say we're going to have a problem, but I don't think it looks good to his teammates for him to worry about his numbers, especially the way we're playing,'' Guillen said Monday. ''I know I never did that. That's something the manager or coach should do. I'm not going to say don't call up to the box, but it looks kind of bad. When I played, we didn't worry about that. That was for someone else to look at and handle. But the bottom line in all this is whether we win or lose.

''Obviously, a good player, a Gold Glove winner, you want to have a good season for the free agency, and different guys respond to that stuff differently.

''I don't worry about me. I just worry about my players and how things are in the clubhouse. I worry about what his teammates think about it and what the people think about him. You know now that it's been written about, people are going to start talking about it, and I don't think that's good for him. He's heading to a place that won't be good. He'll have a tough time in Chicago to deal with the media and the fans and his teammates, and he had better be careful about that.''

Not to mention that Orlando has a lot more to worry about going into free agency then a few errors that could have gone either way. Maybe if he was as worried about doing something about that .241 batting average and .297 on-base percentage, this wouldn't be such a big deal. After all, I think the two gold gloves he's won say more about his defensive ability than the two errors. Those numbers at the plate will cost him a lot more money this winter than those two errors ever will.