Risks Just Part of Williams' Way With White Sox

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Kenny Williams seems like a gunslinger, even to his fellow general managers. They think he's one of those guys who makes decisions at the snap of a finger.

"If you want to do a deal, he doesn't overthink it, doesn't look back," A's general manager Billy Beane said of his White Sox counterpart.

It is meant as a compliment to Williams, which he appreciates. Except it's not true.

Williams said that if he seems like a guy who can make quick decisions, it's because you haven't seen him sitting up at 3 a.m. trying to think of every possible scenario of every possible deal that may or may not happen over the next three years.

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"I live and breathe this game," Williams told FanHouse. "I do a lot of work between the hours of 2 a.m. and 5 or 6, because I don't sleep particularly well. I have all the different permutations that can come up if this team offers us this and and what fits for them and what free agents might pop up three years down the line and where they might fit compared with what is coming up through our minor leagues vs. what I might be able to get in trade. All of that is already factored in. That's an ongoing process with us.

"[Yankees general manager] Brian Cashman can call me up right now and ask me if I'm interested in something and yeah, I can give him an answer, because I've already gone through it."

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Williams, 45, is entering his 11th season in the all-consuming job of White Sox general manager, ranking him fifth in the big leagues in current tenure, behind Brian Sabean (Giants), Beane, Cashman and Dan O'Dowd (Rockies). In his decade of running the White Sox, the club has had eight winning seasons, including three division titles and a World Series championship in 2005.

It's been a pretty nice run for a guy who got into baseball by mistake.

Williams was a football and baseball star growing up in San Jose. The White Sox drafted him out of high school and he chose baseball.

"I went the wrong way," said Williams, who got a reality check when he hit .231 as a 19-year-old in his first full professional season.

Meanwhile, Williams still went to Stanford in the offseason and played football for two years. He was one of the top kick returners. (He was almost on the kick coverage unit for "The Play," one of the most horrifying moments in Cardinal football history, but at the last minute his coach pulled him back to allow a senior to enjoy the last play of his college career. If Williams had been on the field? "There would have been no Play," he said.)

"Football was easy. I probably could have played in the League a long time, but unfortunately I went toward baseball," Williams said. "Or fortunately. My body is probably better off for it."

Williams eventually made the majors for an unspectacular career. He hit .218 in 451 games spanning six seasons. When he finally got released in 1992, Williams was prepared to go back to Stanford to earn his degree, but White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf intervened, offering Williams a job as a scout.

Eight years later, Williams had climbed to the top of the organization's baseball operations ladder, becoming the GM.

"There is no preparing for the stress and the pressure that you feel sitting in that chair," he said. "I think everyone experiences growing pains. I guess it's gotten to the point that, 10 years later, there's very little that bothers me anymore, other than the losses. I roll with the punches on everything else."

One of the "punches" often thrown at Williams is the assertion that he's short-sighted as a general manager, taking big risks for the present without regard to the future. Some of his recent moves have added to that reputation.

• In 2008, he traded the White Sox top two prospects, Gio Gonzalez and Fautino De Los Santos, and their top position player prospect, Ryan Sweeney, to the A's for Nick Swisher.

• Last year, he traded four pitchers to the Padres for an injured Jake Peavy and the remaining $52 million on his contract.

• Also in 2009, Williams put a waiver claim on the disappointing Alex Rios, taking on more than $37 million left on his contract.

• Williams traded Chris Getz and Josh Fields, a couple of young everyday players, to the Royals for Mark Teahen, who had not found a stable position in Kansas City.

Add it all up and the White Sox enter 2010 with a payroll over $100 million. They already have over $66 million in commitments for 2011 and $45 million for 2012. The 2011 and '12 figures are the highest in the division. The White Sox also have a projected everyday lineup with only one player -- 23-year-old Gordon Beckham -- younger than 27.

The trades have also left them with a farm system ranked 23rd by FanHouse baseball analyst Frankie Piliere.

So far, it's worked. The White Sox have been perennial contenders during Williams' tenure, and none of the players he has traded away have become stars elsewhere. He also insists that he has an eye on the payroll, and the Peavy and Rios acquisitions aren't going to put the White Sox in a financial bind.

"We're not stressed in any way shape or form," Williams said. "That's why I was able to do that."

(Although Williams downplayed the financial risk involved in the Peavy deal, Reinsdorf admitted this week that he was initially against taking on Peavy's salary, and he said "We are really sticking our necks out.")

Williams also said that the farm system is in good shape.

"Player development and scouting are the lifeblood of your organization," Williams said. "I can't move Player One if we don't have a player coming up who can fill that spot over the next year or next two years. I never want to be in a position where I have to sign a free agent to fill a spot."

Ozzie Guillen certainly appreciates that Williams has kept the big-league roster stocked with talent. Guillen is starting his seventh season as the White Sox manager.

"I am lucky to work for him," Guillen said. "That's all I can say. The reason I have that many years as a manager in the big leagues is him. He gives me good clubs to compete. That's all you can ask as a manager."

Guillen-Williams is one of the more intriguing manager-GM relationships in the majors, because both men are outspoken. They are also the same age, having been teammates with the White Sox. Neither is afraid to say what's on his mind, even if it's not politically correct.

Again, though, Williams said the public perception is not reality. They don't have knock-down, drag-out fights.

Well, not usually.

"I love him to death," Williams said. "Do we get on each other's nerves? From time to time, absolutely. You are talking about two strong-willed men that aren't afraid to express themselves and tell you what's on their mind. That's why I hired him. I didn't want anyone who I felt was going to acquiesce to everything I wanted or felt or believed. I want somebody that has the balls to stand up in front of me and say 'I think you're wrong.' I'm gonna tell him why I'm right, and he's gonna tell me why I'm wrong again. We're going to fight and argue and curse at each other, and walk out at the end of the day and he'll say 'You might have a point,' and I'll say 'You might have a point.'"

If that sounds like it has the makings of a good TV show, MLB Network is banking on it. The network has a crew following Williams, Guillen and the White Sox coaching staff for a reality show called "The Club," which will air starting in July. The show could further Williams' reputation as a "gunslinger" or show him to be a more deliberate thinker.

Or, it could be neither. Williams figures it will end up being the Ozzie Guillen Show.

"Those cameras will be following me around for about two days," he said, "and they'll have enough of my boring ass."