GM Ken Williams denies White Sox coach-cutting rumors

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Despite the White Sox being in the American League Central basement at 11-25, Ozzie Guillen and his coaching staff apparently aren’t being targeted for removal. | Nam Y. Huh~AP

Updated: August 28, 2011 12:21AM

Was it Ozzie being Ozzie, shooting from the hip, or was it Ozzie Guillen the manager feeling, for the first time in his eight-year tenure, that he might not be fireproof?

Either way, he sounded like an old-time prisoner from a Sly Stallone movie, worn down and left paranoid by the system.

‘‘At this point, I don’t trust anyone,’’ Guillen said Wednesday when reporters asked him if he had spoken to chairman Jerry Reinsdorf about his immediate future. ‘‘You think Jerry [would] come to me and say, ‘We might fire you?’ ’’

Well, Guillen can sleep easier tonight (maybe with one eye open rather than two). And the coaching staff can do the same after general manager Ken Williams indicated there are no plans to remove anyone.

There were rumblings Thursday morning that while the usual traveling party was headed for Seattle on the team charter, not everyone would be making the trip home. Not a shock, considering that if it can happen on the West Coast for the Sox, it usually does.

But Williams quickly answered a text message regarding the rumors and the Sox coaches’ job security with, ‘‘Wrong. Not even close.’’

So there shouldn’t be another Von Joshua episode, at least on this trip to the Left Coast. It was on May 21, 2001, that an angry Williams announced in Oakland that Joshua, the hitting coach, was out of a job, replaced by Gary Ward. Williams told reporters that day: ‘‘I’m not going to sit around and watch this team underachieve all year. I’m sick and tired of it. It’s beyond the time to put up or shut up.’’

The West Coast also has brought memorable table-flipping episodes by Williams, specifically one game against the Athletics when the Sox were dominated by former Oakland ace Mark Mulder.

‘‘Mulder!’’ Williams yelled at the team before dumping their postgame food table onto the floor. ‘‘Mark [bleep]ing Mulder!’’

Leave it to Williams to give an all-new meaning to ‘‘killing the spread.’’

So what’s the answer for what’s ailing the Sox in 2011?

The same as it was on Opening Day, the same as it was two days ago: The players need to play better.

Under Guillen, the Sox have been very consistent about putting the responsibility on the players to sink or swim, rather than the coaches. Williams has been fairly hands-off in these matters, with Tim Raines the only coach publicly let go, in 2008, and that move came from Guillen himself.

The conspiracy theorists could point out that while Guillen’s contract option was picked up through 2012, the members of the coaching staff are all without deals after this season, making it easier to throw one or more into the fire with very little fiscal fallout. But for now it seems just that: a conspiracy theory.

Then again, this is the West Coast.

Memo to Guillen and his staff: Breathe.

Memo to Sox players: Get to that postgame food spread quickly.