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Peeved no more: Peavy likes Sox' approach

The upstart White Sox are not guilty of failing to communicate this season, according to starting pitcher Jake Peavy.

And taking the lead from new manager Robin Ventura, the Sox have also steered clear of all the controversy that engulfed the club — and clubhouse — in recent seasons.

Before Monday night's game against the Royals, Peavy might have started a bit of a brushfire by taking some jabs at former manager Ozzie Guillen, even though no names were ever mentioned.

Peavy was talking about the White Sox' decision to switch from a six-man rotation back to the standard five starters. As expected, Philip Humber is the odd-man out and he'll pitch out of the bullpen.

While saying the decision to go with an extra starting pitcher the past month was good and helped youngsters like Chris Sale and Jose Quintana stay as fresh as possible, Peavy raved at the way the Sox communicated the plan.

In the process, he took a swipe at Guillen … and the Washington Nationals.

“The organization has to be smart about things, and they will,” Peavy said. “I think this organization has handled Chris Sale brilliantly. When you look at how Washington seems to be all over the map (with Stephen Strasburg), ‘Hey, we've got this many innings, there's no number, I'm in control, this and that,' we've had an open line of communication from the front office, from Kenny (Williams) to Rick Hahn to what's going on in this clubhouse, with all of us.

“That's something that hasn't happened here in the past and it's so nice to see an organization work as a cohesive group from the top of the chain all the way down to us and make good decisions for all the players involved.”

Guillen is the only link in the chain no longer with the White Sox, so it's pretty easy to read between the lines on that one.

Actually, it's no secret that Peavy and Guillen had little or no mutual admiration, and their relationship became particularly strained late last season when Peavy was shut down due to fatigue.

A Twitter war ensued during the off-season, and Guillen threatened to rip into Peavy before Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf convinced him otherwise.

These days, Guillen has his hands full managing the sad-sack Miami Marlins and he no longer tweets.

As for Peavy, he took another jab at Guillen on Monday but softened it up at the end.

“I think the White Sox are in such a good position with the coaching staff to the front office to us players,” Peavy said. “There's an open line, and all of us can be an open book and talk through things. You watch the way John Danks was handled, you watch the way (Jose) Quintana and Sale have been handled, and myself, it's been nice to see because that certainly hasn't been the case at times, probably in most organizations.”

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