Orlando Cabrera Career Tracker

Cabrera greases his exit by calling out teammates

BY JOE COWLEY jcowley@suntimes.com

MINNEAPOLIS -- Give Orlando Cabrera credit: Between hands of Texas Hold 'Em, playing dominoes and mastering the art of the five-minute change, shower and dash after games, the White Sox shortstop has found time to set the stage for his exit from the South Side.

An exit in which he undoubtedly will point the finger at the organization months from now, insisting, ''They were the problem, not me.''

The process already started with Cabrera's appearance Tuesday on ''Boers & Bernstein'' on WSCR-AM (670). Asked how the 2008 Sox compare with some of the other teams Cabrera has played on, he replied: ''The one thing we're missing, a team that wins so many ballgames is missing, is we don't come out every night as the winners. We come out hoping to win a ballgame. I don't think that's the right attitude.

''This is a team that has so many stars and so many good players. The other team should be afraid of facing us. We should show that face every night and win ballgames before they even start at 7 o'clock.''

It's a good message, but the wrong guy was delivering it.

Funny, until manager Ozzie Guillen called him out in May, 7 o'clock was about the time Cabrera was arriving to the park. Maybe he was figuring out what scary face to put on that night in order to psych out the opponent.

Then there was this little gem on the clubhouse antics: ''There are guys that want to be clowns or want to be funny or want to be this, but what I don't like is there's a time for that and a time to get serious in a ballgame, and I don't see that. ... You can have fun, but at the same time, you have to take care of business.''

That apparently includes calling up to the press box to have your errors overturned onto your teammates -- whom, coincidentally, you have taken no time to know.

Cabrera isn't stupid. He knows big money awaits him in free agency -- maybe even with the Twins -- so he's throwing up his hands in the final week of the regular season, all but saying, ''Even I can't help these guys win. They don't want it like me.''

Quick reminder to Mr. Cabrera: You have a whopping .259 average in 27 postseason games, and the one team you did win a ring with, the 2004 Boston Red Sox, rented you for three months before letting you walk into free agency without flinching.

But give him credit: He knows how to make an exit.

Cabrera to debut for A's on Saturday
Recently acquired shortstop will DH against visiting Giants

PHOENIX -- Oakland's new starting shortstop will make his Cactus League debut this weekend.

As a designated hitter.

That's the plan as of Thursday, anyway. A's manager Bob Geren offered a qualifier in announcing that Orlando Cabrera, who has been in camp for all of six days, will DH on Saturday against the visiting Giants.

If that goes well, Cabrera will play defense for the first time Sunday against the host Angels.

"It's in pencil," Geren offered.

The hedge is certainly understandable given the state of flux in which several of Oakland's projected regulars have been stuck this spring.

The status of third baseman Eric Chavez's twice-repaired right shoulder has been murky from the get-go; ace right-hander Justin Duchscherer has a tender elbow and an uncertain future; co-closer Joey Devine hasn't pitched in more than a week with a tender elbow of his own; and first baseman Daric Barton hasn't played much for a variety of reasons.

But Geren, as any avid A's fan knows, tends to downplay all things not daisies and rainbows, preferring to focus on what's going well. Cabrera's workouts since joining the team last Friday, he said, have gone very well.

"He's just about there, which is pretty amazing considering he missed the first three weeks," said Geren. "Obviously, he kept himself in pretty good shape while he was out there [on the free-agent market]."

Cabrera, who was working out at Phoenix Municipal Stadium on Wednesday morning while most of his new teammates were enjoying a day off, said he's eager to face big league pitching and likes the idea of doing a little DH duty before taking the field for defense.

"I think it'll be good. It's the right way," said Cabrera, 34. "It's been less than a week I've been here and everything's a little fast. So you get some at-bats [at DH first] and see how it goes."

Barton, whose return from offseason hip surgery has been slowed of late by a strained quad, also was at Phoenix Municipal Stadium for Wednesday's workout and might be cleared to play again within the next day or two.

Chavez was at the stadium, too, but only for treatment on his shoulder. He's been shut down entirely since being scratched from what was expected to be his defensive debut on Monday, and he probably won't be cleared for baseball activities any time soon.

"Nothing for the next few days," Geren said of Chavez, who is 1-for-11 as a DH and pinch hitter this spring. "Through the weekend, at least."

Duchscherer and Devine are in the flat-ground stage of their respective throwing programs. Geren, who said Devine might start throwing off a bullpen mound this weekend, turned a tad testy when asked if he needed to see Duchscherer in action by a certain date before writing him into the starting rotation for the first week of the regular season.

"It's not necessary to look at it that way," he said. "There has to be a progression; right now, it's one step at a time. I just want to get him ready."