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Sunday Roundup

Ozzie scolds anti-Thome fans...again. Joe Cowley, Chicago Sun-Times

Ozzie Guillen can't comprehend why Indians fans continue to boo Jim Thome:

''This man is Cleveland Indians, this man is going to be in the Hall of Fame in a Cleveland Indians uniform,'' Guillen said. ''Respect that. Appreciate that. This man, when he goes into the Hall of Fame, he won't wear no [expletive] White Sox uniform, he'll be wearing a Cleveland Indians hat. He won't wear no Philadelphia hat. If they boo me, fine. I deserve that. I earned that. But when you boo this man, this is a classy man, he's one guy that's going to represent the Cleveland Indians in the Hall of Fame.''

This shouldn't be too difficult to understand, yet every time the White Sox come into Cleveland, an article like this invariably appears. It usually says something about Thome's great personality, his charities, and his long and successful career in Cleveland.

And you know what? Those things don't matter to the fans; all that matters is the way he left. The perception of the vast majority of fans is that he deceived them on his way out. Now he's back as a key player for the White Sox; this isn't a player who's on his last legs or playing for a National League team. This sanctimonious BS is getting tiresome.

It's true, Westbrook really does like it here. Jim Ingraham, Morning Journal.

Yes, it is a rare event that a pending free agent decides to stay with the Indians, but this is pushing it a bit too far:

Remember the bad old days when free agents would leave the Indians and then say it wasn't about the money? Well here's a case where it really WASN'T about the money. It couldn't have been about the money, because if it was, Westbrook would have won his usual 14 or 15 games this season, pitched his usual 200-plus innings, then cashed his $50 to $60 million lottery ticket in the free agent market.

The big concession Westbrook gave the Indians was the length of the deal, and not necessarily the dollars per year. $11M/year isn't that far off from what he'd getting on the open market.