Carlos Quentin: a diamond in the rough for White Sox: Chicago outfielder has impressed teammates, fans and management with his early season contributions and drive to be successful

Baseball Digest, August, 2008 by Scott Merkin

FOR NUMEROUS WHITE SOX FANS who frequent message boards or fan sites illustrating the intense passion and support shown for their organization, they know a nickname has been bestowed on the team's young left field sensation based on an interview with general manager Ken Williams last December.

The topic dealt with the improvements Williams made during the off-season, despite some message board and media mavens' opinions to the contrary, in an attempt to vastly raise his team's talent base from last year's 72-90 showing.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"We wanted to upgrade at shortstop, get a setup guy for the bullpen, acquire Carlos Quentin, and not a guy like him but actually Carlos Quentin," said Williams in definitive tones during the conversation.

From this quote came the moniker of TCQ, as in 'The Carlos Quentin.'

It probably started as a way to poke fun at what many outside the White Sox front office looked at as a minor move, but one that was being stressed by Williams. It probably took on a different connotation during spring training, as Quentin battled to bounce back from off-season surgery to repair a tear in his left labrum and rotator cuff, looking destined for the disabled list or Triple-A Charlotte to begin the 2008 campaign.

Now, "TCQ" has a few layers of tremendously positive meaning behind this description. How about possibly "The White Sox All-Star Representative" or "The Team's Most Valuable Player through the season's first six weeks."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

However you want to label him, the December 3 trade that brought Quentin to Chicago from Arizona in exchange for minor league slugger Chris Carter looks to be one of Williams' most significant moves. The high level of success produced by Quentin comes as no surprise to the White Sox man in charge.

"He's not doing anything he hasn't done before," said Williams of Quentin, who through June 1 had a .293 batting average and team-highs in home runs at 14 and RBI at 48. "This is him. He's been a good player.

"All I needed to be assured of was his health," Williams added.

Looking at Quentin's past major league numbers with the Diamondbacks, albeit a small test example, quickly presented a caveat to Williams' argument as to how Quentin's health was the lone overriding concern. Although Arizona's top pick in the 2003 first-year player draft had found minor league success, posting a .312 average, with 55 home runs and a .427 on-base percentage over 379 games, Quentin's most productive year for Arizona came via his .253 average over 166 big league at-bats in 2006.

With Chris Young, Justin Upton and Eric Byrnes in the D-backs outfield fold, Quentin became expendable following his injury-plagued .214 effort in 2007. Maybe all Quentin needed was a new home, with a newfound burst of confidence and support behind him.

"Sometimes just a change of scenery helps immensely, where you can just kind of drop the baggage that's been hanging on with you and get off to a fresh and new start with a team where you don't have any history," said Arizona manager Bob Melvin of Quentin. "I'm ecstatic that he's gotten off to the start he has."

"This kid, I never thought he was that special or that good, until we got him," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen added. "He works hard and he's always wanting to get better. He's carried this club right now. We hit the lottery with him."

Quentin would have every right to celebrate his tremendous 2008 beginning, sitting atop the American League in home runs. He also ranked second in RBI, third in slugging (.564) and fourth with a .403 on-base percentage.

Then again, bragging and self-promotion aren't among Quentin's prevailing traits. Truth be told, if he went an entire month without doing an interview, it wouldn't bother the young standout.

It's certainly not about Quentin struggling to convey his thoughts. The one-time Stanford student is an eloquent speaker when he has the time to be quoted. It's not that he doesn't like the media. It's more about Quentin's preparatory schedule being so regimented that he's rarely found in front of his locker for even a short sitdown.

According to Brian Anderson, who not only has become Quentin's teammate but also has been his friend since the two faced off in Pac-10 competition during the 2002 and 2003 seasons, the intense work ethic and focus serve as a boon to Quentin's burgeoning career.

"Carlos is very prideful, but at the same time, he tries to take as much as he can even from a bad game and turn it into a positive," said Anderson, who played at Arizona when Quentin was at Stanford. "That way, the next day, he can carry it over.

"I'm used to seeing him hit .350 or .400 and cranking baseballs when I played against him, so this is no surprise. That guy, when he gets into one, he's a very powerful human being. He's a man. He squares some balls up, and it's tin to watch."

An interesting side note concerning Quentin's arrival on the Chicago scene, and this nickname attached to his success, is that he never heard or read Williams' original quote. He just doesn't spend time perusing articles or listening to praise being heaped upon him during radio talk shows.