Guillen's fund for fines takes early hit

Earlier this week, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen told reporters he had about $100,000 set aside in a special account to pay any fines the league might impose on him this season.

Memo to Ozzie: You might want to restock that baby.

That's because two days after Guillen ripped into umpire Phil Cuzzi following an early ejection, Major League Baseball came down hard on the Sox' skipper.

"I got fined a lot of money," Guillen admitted before Friday's game. "I was supposed to buy land in Venezuela … now I've got a hole.

"But I expected it. I respect the way they handled it. I know it's not going to be the last time I'll be fined, because I'm here to protect my players."

In case you missed it, here's what Guillen said about Cuzzi: "I don't like that guy behind the plate. Every time he's behind the plate, we might have a problem."

Swish sits: A hip flexor and some "general soreness" kept outfielder Nick Swisher out of the lineup Friday night against Detroit.

"I'm with Ozzie (Guillen) on this one," Swisher said. "If he says I need to take a day off to get myself a little more healthy, than hey, I'm all for it."

Guillen said the plan actually is to give Swisher more than just a day off.

"(Saturday's) game is at 12 p.m.; if the game was at night, I might play him," Guillen said. "Since it's (Justin) Verlander (pitching), I'm going to give him one more day to recover."

With Swisher out, Brian Anderson started in center, and left fielder Carlos Quentin was moved to the leadoff spot.

"This is the first time I ever led off in my life," Quentin said. "I think I'll take the first pitch."

Quentin did just that and walked in his first at-bat, then followed with a RBI single in the second.

Not feeling their pain: Team captain Paul Konerko was asked if he or his teammates felt bad for Detroit and its 1-8 start this season.

"Collectively, we probably feel as bad for anyone in the league as they felt bad for us last year -- which isn't much," Konerko said.

He said it: Sox manager Ozzie Guillen's on the never-ending Jose Canseco book saga: "He made a lot of money in this game. (The fans and baseball) supported him; we made him who he was. Jose was the best player in that era, (but) just be a man and leave the people alone. I bet Jose can make a lot of money selling a nice book about hitting … I don't know about a fielding (book)."