White Sox were right about Alexei Ramirez

For the last month, no one in the American League has played a better shortstop than Alexei Ramirez, and that's some declaration considering where he began the season.

He's been brilliant at making the easy plays look simple and the hard plays look easy.

And for the last month, no AL shortstop has been anything comparable to Ramirez at the plate.

In July - going into Thursday's games - Ramirez led AL shortstops in pretty much every offensive category for the month, including batting average (.378), OPS (1.005), homers (5), RBI (12) and hits (31).

This would be the time to remember that few people outside of GM Ken Williams and manager Ozzie Guillen thought Ramirez deserved another shot at short this year, after he was so bad for so long last year.

Count me among those completely wrong about Ramirez, and let us remind you that it was Williams at SoxFest who, in the face of much skepticism, said, "Alexei is going to be a terrific shortstop and he's going to have a great year. He's a better shortstop than (Gordon) Beckham, and that's no slight on Beckham. Beckham is a very good shortstop.''

And it was Guillen in January who said, "After May (2009), I think he was one of the better shortstops in the league. He will be better this year. Maybe top three in the American League.''

Well, right now he's playing better than anyone.

Ramirez, despite another slow start that Guillen hoped he would avoid, is tops in the American League among shortstops in hitting (.291), second in homers (11) and OPS (.764) to Alex Gonzalez (17 and .793), and fourth in RBI (41) behind only Gonzalez (50), Derek Jeter (46) and Yuniesky Betancourt (44).

And with Gonzalez traded to the Braves, Ramirez is effectively the AL leader at shortstop in batting average, OPS and homers, and third in RBI, 5 behind the leader and coming on strong.

Most important, he's been brilliant in the field and always alert, compared to last season when he was often asleep at the wheel and fundamentally weak.

This year he's third in the league in fielding percentage behind Jeter and Cesar Izturis, and he deserves the credit for all the hard work he's put in with Joey Cora, and for having an open mind when getting pointers from Omar Vizquel.

Ramirez was really good in 2008 at second base, and came on strong offensively the second half, giving us good reason to believe Williams and Guillen when they sold us on the move to shortstop, Ramirez' natural position.

However, his bad 2009 in the field, not to mention another ugly start this year, had you wondering, but now you have to admit that when it comes to Ramirez, Williams and Guillen look like geniuses for being so stubborn about leaving him at short.

As is often the case, most of us were wrong.

And they were right.

Derrek Lee

In the world of make believe, Derrek Lee would waive his no-trade clause so that the Cubs can get his salary off the books, get something in return for a free-agent-to-be, and get younger wherever they can around the field.

That's totally understandable, but we live in the real world, where Lee owes the Cubs nothing.

The Cubs offered him a contract with a no-trade clause in 2006 knowing he'd be 35 at the end of the deal, and Lee took it, happy to get a five-year extension worth $13 million annually.

The Cubs didn't have to give him the no-trade, in which case Lee might have walked and gotten that contract and - maybe - a no-trade clause from someone else. As it turns out, Lee had protection as a 10-and-5 player anyway by the time the Angels deal made it to the table.

The fact that he's been terrible this year has nothing to do with it. He got his deal as protection for his family, and he should not be ashamed of wanting to keep his kids in one place, until such time as they have to leave.

Lee has been a good player and a good citizen here and that's all he owed anyone.

As for wanting to win above all else, LeBron James is all the proof you need that not everyone is Michael Jordan.

Girardi story

One of the truly uninformed notions to come down the pike since the news of Lou Piniella's retirement is that Joe Girardi was some sort of finalist for the Cubs' job four years ago.

Again, for those with no memory or are hard of reading, Girardi got a courtesy interview only after he sought help from intermediaries.

Piniella was their guy, there was no real second choice, and had there been, it would not have been Girardi. He wouldn't have even been interviewed without prodding.

It remains to be seen if the exact opposite will be true this time around.

Case for Baines

One of the more interesting late-night conversations of the Cooperstown weekend was with Eddie Murray.

Not only was he affable, talkative and nothing like the way he's often portrayed, Murray also spoke of Harold Baines deserving serious Hall of Fame consideration.

So far, Baines has barely broken 6 percent, with 75 percent needed for election.

And finally-

Andre Dawson, on trying to get in a workout during induction weekend: "I finally found a stationary bike in the hotel. I think it was left behind by Babe Ruth.''

brozner@dailyherald.com

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