Chicago White Sox Notes, Quotes 2009-03-29

--Manager Ozzie Guillen ended any talk that the White Sox may have to go outside the organization to find a center fielder/leadoff hitter, at least for now, even though Dewayne Wise, Brian Anderson and Jerry Owens have failed to impress during spring training. "No, we're not going (outside)," Guillen said. "I don't want that to happen, I don't like that to happen. If we have to go outside the organization right now, gosh, I'm not going to say we're in trouble, but as a ballclub we have enough guys here to resolve that problem." The one fact that remained apparent is that the final decision will go down to the wire. "Yes, it will, without a doubt," Guillen said. "We just sit around and talk at our meeting that we wish someone would step up and take it."

--RHP Jeff Marquez is not being judged too harshly this spring, even with a 5.87 ERA entering the final week, and a big reason why is that he's a sinkerball pitcher trying to get his ball to drop in the dry Arizona climate. "It's hard because you're not going to see the ball (move) because you can't get a grip," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "But he's been throwing the ball well all spring." Marquez remained in the mix for a middle-relief job.

--DH Jim Thome took exception to the idea that he and Paul Konerko are not vocal enough leaders. "Here's the thing -- there's 'rah-rah' leaders, there are leaders in performance, there are leaders in seniority," Thome said. "I think (there's a) misconception on what makes a good leader is -- 'Oh, he might not say a whole lot, so he's not a legitimate leader.' Sometimes you don't have to be vocal and 'rah-rah.' You can pull a kid aside and kind of throw him in the right direction. You don't have to call a meeting and be like, 'You need to do this, you need to do that.' That's what makes a good team, when you have everyone working together -- when guys aren't afraid to ask a veteran a question."

--The White Sox are still hoping that RHP Mike MacDougal has generated enough interest in teams for a potential trade after he posted a 0-1 record with a 3.27 ERA in his first 11 Cactus League games this spring. He was leading the club in Cactus League appearances for a reason.

BY THE NUMBERS: 4 -- The number of combined saves by White Sox pitchers not named Bobby Jenks in 2008. All Jenks did was record 30 saves, giving him 30 or more in three consecutive seasons.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "There's a lot of trust there because of our past experience with Bartolo, so we understand how he went about his business when he was completely healthy and now understanding to a greater degree and trusting that we can allow a little bit of a slower road. Again, we're not trying to build Bartolo up to what used to be nine innings of work. We're trying to build him up for six innings of strong, solid work." -- General manager Ken Williams on getting RHP Bartolo Colon ready to start the season.