Instead, Chicago signed Jermaine Dye. In Kansas City in 1999 and 2000, Dye had looked like a budding superstar. But after the cash-strapped Royals traded him in July 2001 to, of all places, Oakland, Dye suffered through three-and-a-half mostly injury-riddled seasons. Meanwhile, his salary skyrocketed to $11.5 million in 2004. With Dye now considered discount merchandise, Williams was able to snag Dye as a free agent for only $4 million in 2005.

In return, Dye has replaced the 30 home runs Ordonez used to it, while adding 85 RBI. Meanwhile, Ordonez has suffered through an injury-riddled season in Detroit.

The strategy doesn't mean that Williams is always getting an immediate discount — it just means he's not buying at peak. On Wall Street, he'd been called a value investor. One of his stocks was Dustin Hermanson, who led the White Sox in saves. He actually got a raise for 2005, from $800,000 with the Giants to $2 million with Chicago. But that's still down from his peak of $5.8 million from the Red Sox in 2002.

Same with Everett, whom the Sox have traded for twice — in 2003 and 2004. The designated hitter and outfielder is being paid $4 million for 2005, but that's down from the share of the $9.1 million salary Chicago picked up when acquiring Everett from the Rangers.

The reclamation projects aren't just veterans. Bobby Jenks was a legendary minor-leaguer for his 100 mph fastball — and for his drinking problems. For $20,000 off the waiver wire (from the Angels), the White Sox got the man who stepped in as closer, with two saves in the season-ending Cleveland series.

There is one thing Beane's A's and Williams' White Sox have in common: a realization that nothing motivates players quite like the next big paycheck. The White Sox keep up that strategy by signing their players to, at most, three-year deals with a one-year option. The White Sox show a willingness to pay good starting pitching, but the short-term deals apply to them, too. Freddy Garcia has the longest-term deal of any White Sox pitcher; he's signed through 2007.

Even in on-field strategy, the White Sox are anti-"Moneyball." A perfect inning for them is leadoff hitter Scott Podsednik (acquired from Milwaukee for power-hitter Carlos Lee, and making only $700,000) getting a single, stealing second, getting sacrificed to third by Japanese import Tadahito Iguchi (another Williams low-wattage signing, for $2.5 million), and scoring on a base hit by whomever is hitting third. That reflects the personality and style of Guillen, a shortstop who regularly was among the league leaders in defense and sacrifices.

But Guillen's personality also fits will with the temperament of players in Williams' Moneyball-in-the-mirror. A player whose salary has been cut to $4 million from $11.5 million doesn't have the ego he used to. If Guillen wants him to sacrifice the runner, well, by god he's going to move along that runner and be happy about it. Perhaps "The Dirty Dozen" had the right idea — the only person a group of malcontents and damaged goods will listen to is someone nuttier than they are.

In "Moneyball," Williams is portrayed as daft because he doesn't seem to value the same players, like submarine reliever Chad Bradford, that Beane does. Well, Williams' White Sox are in the playoffs, and the A's aren't. And the A’s traded Bradford to Boston. Perhaps Williams' crazy plan was not so crazy after all.

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