"That bachelor's degree in political science from Stanford isn't holding much weight for Carlos Quentin.

He should have thrown in a few psychology classes along the way. Maybe then he would be able to explain why he has gone from 2008 most valuable player candidate to enigma in less than two seasons.

It's obvious the White Sox can't.

''I will keep playing Carlos, unless something happens to him, but we're going to pick our spots when to play him, we got guys that can help him, like [Mark] Kotsay, [Andruw] Jones, help him in the outfield,'' manager Ozzie Guillen said Wednesday.

''I'm going to give him the best opportunity to go through the season. He's the one that will dictate to me how much he wants to play. If he gets good at-bats ... every day we come to the ballpark, we hope Carlos comes out of this. We've seen some signs, but then the next couple of days, done.

''Hopefully, he can come with the right frame of mind every day. Hopefully, he doesn't put doubts in himself. I'm going to give him his at-bats. We expect good things out of him every day.''

And they have every day since 2008."