Regardless, the proactive Williams undoubtedly is going to at least start the process of finding a replacement for Jose Contreras, who was hammered again in Saturday night?s game at Texas.

On a rainy night at Rangers Ballpark, the Sox fell to the Rangers 9-6. The 37-year-old Contreras lasted just 3? innings and allowed 7 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks.

Contreras was OK in the first two innings against Texas, but he walked Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Ian Kinsler leading off the third and Hank Blalock made him pay the price with a 3-run homer.

Leading off the fourth inning, the Rangers tagged Contreras with 3 straight doubles, and the veteran right-hander was gone after Kinsler drove in a run with a one-out single.

Pitching coach Don Cooper doesn?t necessarily care about wins, losses, ERA and quality starts. He just wants his pitchers to give the Sox a chance to win.

Coming back early after rupturing his Achilles? tendon in an Aug. 9 start against the Red Sox last season, Contreras did not get the job done in each of his first 3 outings, going 0-3 with an 8.04 ERA.

In his last start, against Toronto on April 26, Contreras pitching 7 innings for the first time since June 5 of last season, allowing 3 runs on 8 hits.

"Awesome job," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said after the game. "He had more confidence. If Jose continues to throw like that, he?ll win some games for us. Hopefully, this game makes him feel good about himself."

Apparently, it did not.

After getting knocked around by Texas, Contreras? ERA (8.31) is back up in worrisome territory, and the obvious question is how many more starts will he make?