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http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ozzie-guillen...DFuu8xAziY5nYcB Tim Brown, yahoosports ..Miami Marlins, Ozzie Guillen can't afford to alienate Cubans with U.S.-Havana bridge on horizon . .By Eric Adelson ..PostsEmailRSS..By Eric Adelson | Yahoo! Sports – 4 hours ago .... The stakes must be pretty high for the Miami Marlins to fly manager Ozzie Guillen back from the road Tuesday to make amends for his appalling praise of Fidel Castro. But we may not know the half of it. Of course Miami is heavily populated by Cuban-Americans, with nearly half the U.S. population of Cuban-Americans living in Miami-Dade County. But there's another pool of potential baseball fans – and players – that needs to be considered here. The Cubans themselves. That's because it's quite possible that in the lifetime of the new Marlins Park, relations between the U.S. and Cuba will normalize, opening the gates for baseball players and fans to freely travel from Havana to Florida and points north. Think it's speculative silliness? Don't be so sure. Only a year ago, the White House took "a series of steps to continue efforts to reach out to the Cuban people in support of their desire to freely determine their country's future," steps that included the modification of regulations on "purposeful travel." As ForeignPolicy.com declared, "Whether the Castros admit it or not, Cuba is moving in a direction that fulfills U.S. hopes for a more market-oriented, open society on the island." Normalization would not be an easy transition by any means – Castro's son, Raul, is entrenched in power – but it's a process that might pick up steam after Fidel, now 85, dies. And it surely would affect everything in Miami. "It's gonna happen sooner than later," says historian Rob Ruck of the University of Pittsburgh, who wrote "Raceball: How the Major Leagues Colonized the Black and Latin Game." "There has been a liberalization of the dynamics between Cuba and Cuban-Americans in Florida that has reached a tipping point. And what happens when Cuban ballplayers can come into the U.S. without having to go into exile? That's going to happen, too." So the Marlins might not only be protecting the fan base (and talent base) they see every day but also untold future followers who have no idea what Ozzie Guillen said in Time magazine about the Cuban revolutionary leader. The Marlins declined to comment for this story, but it's clear by the strong rebuke of their new manager that they realize the value of the Cuban-American community. Over the offseason, team president David Samson made a run at the "Cuban Missile," rookie slugger Yoenis Cespedes, vowing to be "aggressive right to the point of stupidity." Oakland signed Cespedes, but the impact of having a Cuban émigré on the roster is going to be hard to overstate if and when the gateway to the south opens up. Ruck imagines someone like Cespedes as a "Hank Greenberg/Sandy Koufax in a city of Jews." Are there more like Cespedes just waiting to be discovered? Hard to tell. The talent pool has been closed off since Castro took power in 1961 and made professional baseball illegal. A few stars have escaped – most prominently Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez and his half-brother Livan, who both pitched for teams that won World Series – but nearly all the Cuban refugees we've seen in the majors arrived toward the end of their careers. The rare younger defectors, including Cespedes, the Los Angeles Angels' Kendrys Morales, and Cincinnati Reds pitcher Aroldis Chapman, who famously threw the fastest pitch in recorded MLB history at 105 mph, were overpowering almost as soon as they put on an MLB uniform. No, not all Cuban players made an impact – and as Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Passan wrote in 2010, the politics and bureaucracy involved in bringing Cuban players to MLB already is numbing – but with a nation that's bigger in size and population than the Dominican Republic, the Marlins can't afford to create the impression of a hostile environment. In a 2008 piece for Vanity Fair, Michael Lewis wrote, "There may be no entrapped pool of human talent left on earth with the dollar value of Cuban baseball players." Lewis quotes a scout who says compared to the heralded Dominicans, "The Cubans are better." That's a bold statement, considering it's hard to find too many top teams in the big leagues without a Dominican star. But Lewis has some evidence: "Back in the old days, before Cuba was closed for business, it supplied more players to the major leagues than all the other Latin-American countries combined. In 1961, Cuba entered its first post-revolutionary baseball teams in international competitions and proceeded to beat the hell out of everyone, including the Dominicans. For a 10-year stretch, starting in 1987, the Cubans were 129–0 in major international competitions." Yes, the fall of the Soviet Empire (Cuba's main trading partner) brought severe poverty and isolation to the island. But the tradition is firmly entrenched. "Beside politics," said Arturo Mercano Guevara, an expert on baseball in Latin America, "the only thing [the Cubans] talk about is baseball. The stadiums were packed completely." The adoration for the sport goes all the way back to the mid-1800s, and arguably has grown over the Castro years, as bullfighting and boxing faded somewhat. (The Dodgers once trained in Havana.) So it's hard to believe a détente with Cuba wouldn't have a ripple effect on MLB – specifically, the Marlins. Granted, the development of the Cuban middle class will take many years, but in the middle of the last century, Cubans came to Miami for weekend shopping trips. If fans fly from Tokyo to see Ichiro, they'll fly a half-hour to see the Marlins – especially if one or a few of their own are playing. "If the [Castro] regime collapses and a new kind of government takes over, which is what we all would want, of course it would have an impact," said Roberto Gonzalez-Echeverida, a Yale professor who wrote a book about baseball in Cuba. "I think Miami and Havana would become the ends of a bridge, connecting the two cities." Gonzalez-Echeverida thinks the Marlins have work to do. "The Marlins are not reaching out to the Hispanic community," he told Yahoo! Sports well before this latest fiasco. The acquisition of Dominican star Jose Reyes and the continued presence of Hanley Ramirez surely helps, but Guillen's comments likely undid a lot of that – especially in the Cuban-American community. And that community, though already booming, may be only a hint of what's to come. "These forces [of modernization] are pretty darn strong," Ruck said. "I don't think it benefits anybody to maintain these barriers. Cuba is no threat to the United States. It's an anachronism." So it behooves fans and onlookers alike to keep that in mind as the Guillen saga unfolds. If and when the "anachronism" is righted, the meaning of baseball in Miami might change at warp speed.

cst_Cowley ‏ @cst_Cowley Reply Retweet Favorite · Open @BradT313 Nestor Molina 0-1 with a 4.50 ERA in Class AA so far ... thanks for playing. Take a pot shot at KW even though Sergio Santos has two blown saves, Santiago's 2/2 and Molina has one start under his belt 14h cst_Cowley ‏ @cst_Cowley Reply Retweet Favorite · Open I wonder what Robin will say about Cuba this afternoon ... ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ... it's human valium. Blame Ventura for being really boring, not exciting like Ozzie and Joe-Hineybird's Co(u)wsin 14h cst_Cowley ‏ @cst_Cowley Reply Retweet Favorite · Open ... but the fact you people can't quit Ozzie Guillen. Embrace it Chicago, you miss the circus! No, you miss the circus, that's the only reason you still have a job, trying to create one. 14h cst_Cowley ‏ @cst_Cowley Reply Retweet Favorite · Open You know what's amazing? The first week of Chicago baseball, the most talked about thing is not the Sox bullpen, not the Cubs rotation... 16h cst_Cowley ‏ @cst_Cowley Reply Retweet Favorite · Open Bill Maher's comments about 9-11 were 100 times worse, and ol' Bill recovered just fine. Make irrelevant comparisons with political commentators outside the world of sports (no Rush Limbaugh?) that attempt to make Ozzie look "not so bad" in comparison 16h DKnobler ‏ @DKnobler Reply Retweet Favorite · Open I tend to agree more with @cst_Cowley, who points out that speaking out stupidly is supposed to be a problem in Castro's Cuba, not here. Retweeted by cst_Cowley 16h cst_Cowley ‏ @cst_Cowley Reply Retweet Favorite · Open @Doug_SoxPack So were the eight years of Ozzie worth a World Series trophy? In reply to Doug Gross 16h cst_Cowley ‏ @cst_Cowley Reply Retweet Favorite · Open Loria wanted an over-the-top ballpark and an over-the-top manager that captures headlines. Check and check. All press is good press, caveat emptor, blame it on Loria and KW. 16h cst_Cowley ‏ @cst_Cowley Reply Retweet Favorite · Open @Ricky11Slade It sure is..... put some sun block on and have fun with that. In reply to Tim Boyd 16h cst_Cowley ‏ @cst_Cowley Reply Retweet Favorite · Open @Kaufmak Please don't do the, "Well, if I did that on my job.... '' The pro sports world is not even close to a normal job. In reply to Kaufmak 16h cst_Cowley ‏ @cst_Cowley Reply Retweet Favorite · Open And memo to Cuban protesters: You will be protesting free speech, the very thing you did not have in Cuba. Think about it. Check, check and check: Turn the tables on the protesters and try to make them out to be the bad guys, blame the victim(s) Boy oh boy, Marge Schott and Al Campanis were sure entertaining!

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Apr 9, 2012 -> 11:52 PM) And, IIRC, Brandon Allen has spent some time in LF when he was with the DBacks as well. I'd be a lot more excited if they could convert him to 3B. There, he would actually be a "plus" bat, whereas at 1B/DH he's struggling to survive in the majors. It's a long shot, but to take a young player with some upside over McPherson/Johnson/C.Jackson...playing him at 3B or even in the OF in Birmingham or Charlotte, why not?

Let's hope Beckham can start matching some of his nifty fielding with his work in the batter's box. Alex Rios, TWO HANDS. Chris Sale, every left-handed batter in the league will cringe when they see the Shin-Soo Choo HBP highlight. Fear is your friend. Dayan Viciedo, keep it up. Same with DeAza (except for getting thrown out on the basepaths).

The Marlins called a news conference -- which will be streamed live on MLB.com and marlins.com -- for 10:30 a.m. ET at Marlins Park on Tuesday. http://aol.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2012...s-little-havana So now comes the damage control. Guillen already has had a few days to work on his apologies since he first read the to-be-published comments last Friday. He has been as contrite as anyone could be. I have no doubt he will be sincere at his news conference Tuesday morning. He cares about people and knows he has hurt a lot of them. Of course, there's also that four-year, $10 million contract he wants to keep. This was apparent last week when he dodged a question about the sore-thumb home run sculpture in the new park. "Mr. Loria (Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria) made it? (It's) beautiful," he said. He was smiling but he wasn't joking. So what's next? Will the Marlins do the right thing and suspend him? When this blows over, will Guillen stop doing so many interviews? Will he stop popping off about topics he knows nothing about? I hope not. He would not be Ozzie Guillen if he didn't make ridiculous comments. I don't believe he meant any harm with this one. He was just trying a little harder than usual to be say something outrageous. Heck, you even could say he was just doing his job. The Marlins wanted him to generate headlines. Well, that's what he's done, just more stupidly than usual. Read more: http://aol.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2012...a#ixzz1rckbXpgs

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 12:19 AM) Or he can finish the year 40 of 48 and no one is going to care either way. Or he can lose the job ala Matt Thornton/Aceves/Melancon in the first 6 weeks of the season.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Apr 10, 2012 -> 12:35 AM) I never have a problem selling high on a closer, period. It's a guy you bring on to get 3 guys out. Random guys can come in and be successful closers, and it happens all the time. Hell, Santos was a converted SS who became a successful closer. •1996-1999 Billy Taylor recorded 99 saves in four years and was traded for Jason Isringhausen on July 31st 1999 •2000-2001 Jason Isringhausen notched 67 saves in 2 seasons, signed four year, $27 million deal with St. Louis Cardinals. Beane in return got two compensation picks, both of which never made it out of the minors. •2002 Billy Koch was added in an offseason deal with Toronto. He saved 44 games, then was flipped to the White Sox for Keith Foulke, two others and cash. •2003 Keith Foulke recorded 33 saves, then signed with the Boston Red Sox for $18.75 million over three years. Beane again acquired two compensation picks, catcher Landon Powell and outfielder Danny Putman. •2004 With no closer in the bullpen, Beane acquired Octavio Dotel in June, 2004 in the three team, Carlos Beltran deal. Dotel finished the season with 22 saves. •2005 Dotel gave way to Huston Street after 7 saves. Street had 23 saves himself. Dotel signed with the Yankees in the following off-season. No compensation was given for the loss of Dotel. •2005-2008 Huston Street recorded 84 saves over four seasons. Street was traded after the 2008 season for Matt Holliday. •2009-2011 Andrew Bailey has 60 saves through two plus seasons, and is now “available”. http://www.ultimatesportstalk.com/MLB/2011...elming-rangers/

Here's the beginning of the actual TIME MAGAZINE story...interestingly, the quote/s are from the first week of March, more than one month ago. And Time actually has the picture of Guillen wearing a White Sox uniform from the 2011 season!!! Bet Reinsdorf and KW aren't happy with that. "I love Fidel Castro," Blurts Ozzie Guillen, the new manager of the Miami Marlins, in his Jupiter, Fla., spring-training office before an early-March team workout. During a typically stream-of-consciousness Ozzie oratory, he has covered some favorite topics, such as his passion for bullfighting ("You're giving the animal an opportunity to kill you"), disdain for sports shrinks ("You're 4 for 4, you don't need psychology. You're 0 for 4, you need a f---ing guy to get you ready to play?") and the benefits of brutal honesty ("I told my wife, 'I don't like the perfume you're wearing.' She was mad, but meanwhile,...(the rest is available through subscription) Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...l#ixzz1rc15Ys92 http://www.cnnsi.com/video/mlb/2012/04/09/...1&eref=sihp Verducci on why Ozzie shouldn't be suspended

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Apr 9, 2012 -> 11:26 PM) Which very well could become upgrades soon enought. Reed -> Santos Viciedo -> Quentin Sale -> Buehrle Santiago/Reed/Molina > Santos

With 50/50, you'll actually be pleasantly surprised. Seth Rogen isn't half as annoying as he normally is, largely because he's a supporting actor. Both a totally realistic and "feel good" story at the same time that doesn't feel completely contrived...at least not as much as most Hollywood fare these days. Bryce Dallas Howard does a great job of making you dislike her, which means she hit her mark well.

With all respect to Rosenthal, a 30-day sitdown is ridiculous. Not only because it'd be a longer punishment than transgressions in baseball history that were much worse, but because it's not as if he directly endorsed the despicable methods (including obstruction of free speech) that Castro used to rule over the island country for more than half a century. When I read Guillen's comments, I interpret them as the product of a rambling idiot unable to draw a distinction between the reality of Castro and the weird admiration our society has built up for fictional rogues who gave the middle finger to those who wanted them dead (i.e., Scarface, Tony Soprano). One day we're reading how Guillen says he gets drunk every night, win or lose, and the next we're expecting him to be well-versed on the societal implications of talking about Castro in Miami? What's more, I'm willing to bet that Guillen's thoughts on Castro were likely one of 500 off-the-cuff observations he made that day, whether it was to a relief pitcher on his way to get treatment or in front of reporters with notepads and recorders. Serious question here: If Guillen doesn't have an adequate filter to judge what should and shouldn't come out of his mouth — if he's freely flowing from thoughts about dictators to the yacht he wants to buy — why are we assigning any value or judgment to his ramblings? I don't want to be seen as condoning Guillen's comments here. And I don't want to praise the Marlins for acting like they had nothing to do with it either. When the two sides agreed to a four-year deal, the first bullet point should have been that Castro's name does not leave Guillen's lips for any reason the entire time he wears a Marlins uniform. But with Guillen exposing himself as completely ignorant to the issues involved less than a week into his first season, I think the immediate loss of respect at his new workplace is a worse punishment than any suspension could possibly bring. Taking away his Marlins hat and replacing it with a dunce cap until the All-Star break seems perfectly fitting. BigLeagueStew at yahoosports.com http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion...0,2369568.story Chicago Tribune editorial board getting into the mix

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/11806414-41...ro-in-2008.html Telander taking Guillen to the woodshed. Interesting they didn't let Cowley address this directly, at least yet. Maybe he'll be at the presser tomorrow. http://www.suntimes.com/sports/cowley/1174...know-basis.html This Cowley column from five days ago complaining about the Sox organization not being "open" enough about information like who the closer is seems even more hilarious in light of Ozzie's being "too open." Who can blame them? After all, with Guillen gone, everyone is happy. Williams finally gets to be the face of the franchise, a position he long has coveted but couldn’t have under the huge shadow left by Guillen. Sure, Williams pretends he wants to be “under the radar,’’ but he’s on television more than Snooki. The latest is the new North Side-South Side Nike ad. A bunch of players from the Sox and Cubs are shown training, and there’s Williams, lifting weights and sweating. What the hell does a GM need to train for? You know why Theo Epstein or Jed Hoyer weren’t in it? BECAUSE THEY’RE EXECUTIVES! They’re building teams, not muscle and ego. It’s crazy until you consider this: The Sox must make this transformation. Who knows, it just might work. The idea that they are a 90-95-loss team seems far-fetched. They should breathe down the backs of the Tigers in the first half before fading in September and still finish second or third in the Central. What’s next for the franchise? Sometimes you have to go all the way back to Step 1. No one said detox is easy.

Well, our newest version of Aaron Miles/CJ Retherford might end up getting extensive playing time if Beckham and/or Morel don't get things figured out.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Apr 9, 2012 -> 09:51 PM) The Sox have Cespedes-lite in LF. Or Cespedes-Heavy! Now 9 K's in 15 AB's for Yoenis, the ultimate all-or-nothing hitter.

And Buehrle, we already know the story with that situation. Pretty hard to see anything wrong with how things have broken so far, but it's only 4-5 games in. Obviously, it would have been a spark to sign Cespedes or Soler, but the numbers just got too big with the Dunn/Peavy/Rios contracts already on the books, couldn't afford another bust.

So now Sergio has to save 15-18 in a row to put himself in the territory of "successful" SV/SVO ratio.

Never would have thought that Hernandez would be a starter in AA and Santiago would be the closer at the beginning of ST. Probably just trying to develop all of his pitches like they did with Jones, still a pretty high likelihood he ends up a major league reliever.

All that I'm saying is someone who can consistently throw 95-97 and has that 10+ MPH differential with the offspeed stuff, and 2 decent to above average off-speed pitches, at least has the physical tools/ability to be a closer. Many don't make it, true enough, but the reason they took Jones over Bruney was 100% potential and raw stuff.

QUOTE (Chet Lemon @ Apr 9, 2012 -> 08:51 PM) I think his "best" option would be Brian Sandoval. Unlike some other options being mentioned to appeal to hispanic voters, Sandoval would actually be qualified to take over the Presidency if needed. He's a Governor, former federal judge, held statewide offices, etc. Except very few people have even heard of him. I thought I followed presidential politics pretty closely and that name has never once been on the radar screen nationally.

Pretty funny that former Sox RF Ryan Sweeney broke Papa Grande's save string in DET and now beat ex-Sox Santos in TOR. Ouch. Meanwhile, the bullpen is seemingly our greatest strength and we have theoretically five guys who have the ability to close in Santiago, Thornton, Crain, Reed and even Nathan Jones. Darvish is going to get an ugly win, but it counts. 98 pitches in just five innings, 5 ER, FB 92-93-94 but not anything that was just totally dominating or awe-inspiring.

8 k's in 14 ab's, 1.375 OPS But a bit more power than Brent Morel. 4. All or nothing Already living up to the hype, Yoenis Cespedes looks like he's going to be fascinating to watch this season. After doubling off Felix Hernandez in his major league debut in Tokyo, Cespedes has homered in each of his last three games, and the moonshot that he hit off Jason Vargas Friday night suggests that Oakland's Coliseum isn't going to cramp his style (though it would help if they played Christopher Cross' Sailing when Cespedes rounds the bases). Those three homers tie Cespedes for the major league lead in the early going, but it's worth noting that he also leads the majors in strikeouts. Of Cespedes' first 15 major league plate appearances, 10 have ended in a home run or strikeout. That's not unexpected given the scouting reports we had on him, but it's still a red flag, particularly given the fact that none of his plate appearances have ended in a walk (though he does have a double and two hit-by-pitches in his five other PAs). The concern is how often Cespedes will make contact once major league scouts, coaches and pitchers have seen him enough. Watching major leaguers figuring out how to pitch to Cespedes, and watching Cespedes try to adjust to them in turn, could be one of the more fascinating plotlines of this season, and one of the few good reasons to watch A's games. www.aolsportingnews.com

Leadoff double, 3 chances to tie it. Now a passed ball, runner on 3rd base.

If you factor in all the money we spent on Pena, it probably wasn't a win. We already have Dan Johnson and Conor Jackson, then there's Dunn/Konerko in front of him, so not sure if it would be of interest to KW, maybe not.

CLEVELAND -- Alexei Ramirez is a Cuban native, but with his wife, Mildred, being a native of the Dominican Republic, he did not defect when coming to the United States to play baseball. The White Sox shortstop rarely if ever talks about Cuban politics or dictator Fidel Castro. But he did take time on Monday to briefly address former manager Ozzie Guillen's comments referring to the despot as someone he loved and respected in an upcoming Time Magazine article. "His opinion is not the same opinion I have," said Ramirez through translator and White Sox director of cultural development Jackson Miranda on the Guillen issue. "Everybody is free to have an opinion. "It's one of those that there are some people who like Castro and some people who don't. In Miami, it's definitely of a different thought frame." Although Ramirez had not heard or read Guillen's comments, he felt a public apology that Guillen is set to deliver on Tuesday could go some way in putting the matter behind him. "Apologizing is definitely a big first step," Ramirez said. "Again, I feel that everyone has their opinion, but I also feel that people should be forgiven. So, if he's going to apologize, then I feel that hopefully it will be accepted. I would just say whatever his thoughts, whatever his comments, those are Ozzie's comments. That's more on him." Scott Merkin