Losin' Our Rock

The White Sox have decided not to offer a new contract to Tim Raines.

This whole saga with Rock has been a bizarre affair. In May Greg Walker, Don Cooper, Joey Cora, and Harold Baines had their contracts renewed, but Raines, mysteriously, wasn't offered a new contract. I assumed that he would get a new contract at the end of the year once the Sox figured out what his role would be. Originally, Raines was our first base coach, but later was made the bench coach when Harold had his change of heart about the position.

I never liked having Raines shifted away from first. He was a great basestealer in his day and more importantly, he was very smart on the basepaths. It was only natural that he would be our first base coach, but he got shifted away and now he's not going to be coaching for us in any capacity.

Maybe this is like the Brian Anderson - Ozzie situtation. Maybe there's something going on between Rock and Oz. Otherwise, I can't explain why Raines no longer has a position with us. He seemed to be well liked by the players and all, and when he was coaching first, we seemed to be better at stealing bases.

So the question is, who gets his spot. I've heard rumblings of Robin Ventura coming in and filling the void and Jim from Sox Machine has a feeling it may be Sandy Alomar.