Reiger filling void

[Southsider]

Regier named to fill in for fired Wilder
WHITE SOX IN BRIEF

May 22, 2008Recommend

BY JOE COWLEY jcowley@suntimes.com
Five days after announcing the firing of senior director of player personnel David Wilder,White Sox general manager Ken Williams started picking up the pieces.

The Sox announced Wednesday that director of player development Alan Regier has been reassigned to handle Wilder's amateur, in-house and pro scouting duties, while former big-league manager Buddy Bell will oversee the farm system.

''Alan has a strong background in scouting, and we have Buddy Bell in place to handle the day-to-day running of our minor-league system,'' Williams said in an e-mail.

''We've always tried to have people in place within our organization who have multiple areas of expertise, and this is a case where it helps us move forward seamlessly.''

The Sox announced last week that they terminated the employment of three members of the team's Latin American scouting staff: Wilder, full-time scout Victor Mateo and part-time scout Domingo Toribio. The firings resulted from the findings of a two-month probe by Major League Baseball's Department of Investigations.

An MLB investigator confirmed to the Chicago Tribune that the probe involved skimming of finances, but because it is now a federal investigation, everyone involved is being tight-lipped. That includes Regier, who only would discuss his job change.

''Kenny asked me to fill in the gaps created in the scouting department,'' Regier said. ''With my scouting background, he was comfortable in turning to me to get things done. We are fortunate to have Buddy in position in player development.

''It's an unfortunate set of circumstances to cause this to happen, but I can't talk about that.''

Endorsing Uribe
Second baseman Juan Uribe's right hamstring injury could keep him on the shelf until the weekend, but manager Ozzie Guillen said the job is Uribe's when he's ready to return, despite how well rookie Alexei Ramirez is playing.

Ramirez had six hits in his previous 14 at bats (.429) -- including a homer and a double -- to raise his saverage from .143 to .207 coming into Wednesday night's game.

There were whispers Uribe might have punched his ticket out of town after a baserunning gaffe in a 1-0 loss to Toronto on May 5 to complete an 0-6 road trip. But those rumors turned out to be unfounded and Uribe hit .304 (7-for-23) in the next five games.

''Uribe is the best second baseman the White Sox have had in a long time,'' Guillen said.

Asked if he was better than Joey Cora or Tadahito Iguchi, Guillen said yes on both fronts.

''If Ramirez continues to hit, I might change my mind,'' Guillen said, ''but why take it away from Uribe?''