Chicago Sun-Times: Breakfast of champions not for Sox pen

They are built for a small-market, Middle American playoff race. They are built to win 88 games, 90 tops, enough to outlast Kansas City and Minnesota and anyone else in the Steak 'n Shake Division. They are built to score five or six runs a night and ride their starting rotation to the postseason.

But tell me: Are the White Sox built for October? Built to challenge the Yankees and Red Sox and Athletics? Built to capture Chicago's unreachable holy grail, this eternal tease known as the W- W-World Series, which general manager Ken Williams dares to drop into conversation with astonishing regularity?

Not if they can't find relief. And I don't mean antacids and tiny time pills.

Sorry to break the news, but The Sox are a terrific story waiting to implode. While their revived offense threatens to exhaust the fireworks supply on the South Side, they have a throbbing tummy ache in the bullpen that isn't going away. For all the nice moves Williams has pulled off lately, his major trade last offseason--Billy Koch comes, Keith Foulke goes--continues to be the potential albatross of all Sox hopes. Basically, this team has no lockdown closer. And who would come to town tonight but Foulke and the A's, a team generally managed by Billy Beane, who fleeced Williams and didn't mind telling the world about his genius in the best-selling book Moneyball,' a.k.a. "I'm Billy Beane and You're a Moron."

The Sox promotions department may be featuring Koch in a giveaway comic book, but his mound performances continue to be a tragicomedy of sorts. So erratic is Billy The Squid, it's dangerous to use him in any situation, including a brief stint this week in which he allowed a double and was promptly pulled. The bullpen-by-committee options are Flash Gordon and Damaso Marte, and while they produce at times, they, too, can succumb to letdowns and fatigue when the current stakes require steely, ninth-inning lockdowns.

"We've got to go with what's working, and obviously I'm not what I'm supposed to be right now," said Koch, whose 5.55 ERA and numerous blown saves make him one of the season's colossal busts.

This is no time for hopechests. The Sox have too much momentum and legitimacy to be burdened by a work in progress. As if the bullpen already isn't a nightly roulette wheel, you have the issue of manager Jerry Manuel and whether he'll compound the mess by mishandling his pitchers. Rick White said Manuel's late-inning moves might sabotage the Sox down the stretch, and next thing you knew, he was packing his bags and told to get lost. Foolhardy as White was to lash out publicly, especially with an ERA over 6, he was speaking for the masses. There isn't much confidence in Gandhi, even as the team comes off five of six victories against the first-place Royals. Fans are so conditioned to boo Manuel--who could blame them after he yanked Jon Garland prematurely and helped cost the Sox a game Monday evening?-- they let loose Wednesday when he removed Bartolo Colon after eight shutout innings. It never occurred to them that Colon felt tightness in his back and had to depart. Basically, they have no faith in the manager and his bullpen, a concern further justified when Gordon entered and, in a Flash, allowed a three-run homer to Carlos Beltran.

The Sox now are asking folks at The Cell to refrain from booing their manager. "We're all on the same page in this clubhouse of what we're trying to do," Sandy Alomar Jr. said. "Now, if we could get the fans on that page." But the players are lying if they think the Sox have enough relief pitching to win even one postseason game. Williams must add one more piece. But I'm afraid he blew his best chance.

Did you hear the whoops and hollers in New York after the Yankees acquired reliever Jeff Nelson? That was the rejoicing of George Steinbrenner, who may have just clinched himself the American League pennant. When Nelson ripped the Seattle Mariners for not being more active at the trading deadline, his bosses responded by placing him on waivers and gauging interest from other teams. With considerable glee, the Yankees put in a claim, knowing their bullpen hasn't been the same since Nelson signed with Seattle three years ago. At the same time, the Yankees were placing talented but pressure-phobic reliever Armando Benitez on waivers. The Mariners had interest and, rather stunningly, made the swap Wednesday.

The transaction was "a rare deal," in the words of Yankees GM Brian Cashman, because it came less than a week after the major- league trading deadline. For the deal to go through, Nelson and Benitez had to clear waivers, which didn't appear possible. Because the Yankees and Mariners own the league's best records, any AL team could have stepped in, claimed either pitcher and blocked the scheme.

But no team did. Including Ken Williams and the White Sox.

For little more than $1 million, the Sox could have had a rent-a- reliever in Nelson, who hasn't allowed an earned run since July 5 and held right-handed hitters to a .226 average while compiling a 3-2 record and 3.35 ERA in Seattle.

Alas, for reasons only he knows, Williams passed. Did he look the other way because he and the Yankees cooperated on a three-way offseason deal that brought Colon to the Sox--and kept him from the Yankees' rivals, the Red Sox? In my dictionary, this would be known as collusion. I understand the importance of keeping a good relationship with a business partner, but in August, all bets are off. The Sox should have a Full Nelson in their half-bullpen.

It is hoped Williams keeps exploring the waiver wire, now that the trade deadline has been exposed as artificial. Players can be maneuvered through waivers, but there isn't a closer who looks attractive unless you like Mike DeJean, Jose Jimenez or Kerry Ligtenberg. Williams has surprised us before. Maybe he'll surprise us again. But my guess is, any deal he has cooking for a difference- making reliever will be blocked by a cut-throat GM.

For now, the Sox are stuck with Flash, Damaso, Koch. Sounds too much like Snap, Crackle, Pop for my tastes.