"The message has been sent to Alexei Ramirez.

What he does with it now, that's on him. But he might want to take it to heart considering that Ozzie Guillen is the sender and inevitably the executioner.

Upset with what Guillen called ''lazy'' defense in the victory Thursday over the Los Angeles Dodgers, including a lapse that allowed the Dodgers to tie the score in the seventh inning, the White Sox manager called out Ramirez after the 13-inning game and made it a topic for discussion Friday.

''One thing about it, I don't care if he hates me or if he loves me, but this kid has an unbelievable future,'' Guillen said. ''This kid can be one of the best in the game. My job is to get him there. How I'm going to do it, we'll see how, but I learned that from [Braves manager] Bobby Cox. When Bobby Cox told [former Atlanta outfielder] Andruw Jones right in his face, 'I [benched] you because you're better than that and you're going to be a superstar.' I think this kid has the same tools to be [a star]. If he doesn't play the game right, he's going to have a tough time playing for me.''

Guillen confirmed that he had spoken to Ramirez about that, specifically the idea that Ramirez takes his offensive miscues out to the field at times. Guillen not only had spoken to him, he put him on the bench for a weekend series in May because of it.

''I should [talk to him again], just to get it out of my system,'' Guillen said. ''But I'm going to let him go because I might say the wrong thing and all of a sudden we might create a monster. I hope he reads the paper. My coaching staff will take care of that and we'll see after that. It's not because I hate the kid, it's not because I'm picking on him. You all saw the way he went about his business after he made an out."