VAfan

Last night's game would have turned out differently had we received ANY production out of the 8, 9, or 1 spots in our lineup. The good news was that Iguchi appeared to be back, but that was countered by AJ having a worthless game. (Case in point, Villone, who threw 4 straight balls to Crede to load the bases in the 7th, then threw 4 straight balls to AJ. Unfortunately, AJ swung at two of them and got himself out. A walk would have added a crucial extra run, and also would have turned BA's long fly into a sac fly instead of the third out.) The bad news was that Ozuna remains of no value, that Podsednik is an easy out, that Ozzie for some inexplicable reason declined to pinch hit Mackowiak, and that Uribe was unavailable as a pinch hitter for Cintron with the bases loaded in the 7th or down by a run in the 9th. We need some blood out of these turnips down the stretch.

QUOTE(Princess Dye @ Aug 9, 2006 -> 01:07 PM) a little rash there. Not sure why its rash. Ozuna has had 2 hits since June, and he's not been on the DL. Plus, as a pinch runner, he's been thrown out more often than he's been successful. So, I'd love to get the April-June Ozuna back, but don't want to lose ML games trying to find out when he's going to find the spark again. As for Anderson hitting .269 against lefties since June, whoopee! Even his .300 overall average in July was weak, as he still had a very low OBP and little if any power. I can live with Anderson because his defense is essential in CF. I just want him to be the only seriously weak link in the lineup.

I've felt -- and posted -- for a long time that McCarthy would be most valuable used in the role he should have been in all year -- long relief. He's pitched fewer than 60 innings on the season, and 120-130 isn't going to hurt him. So, over the last 51 regular season games, I would use McCarthy as the first pitcher out of the pen in the 5th, 6th, or 7th innings when our starters appear not to have their best stuff any more. For the good of the team, Ozzie must scrap his 100-pitch plan for all starters and relieve them before leads are blown or deficits exaggerated in the 5th or later innings. McCarthy is the perfect guy to do this and carry the game for a couple innings. In that way he can lessen the stress on both the starters and the rest of the bullpen. This could have a dual effect of both winning some more games, every one of which is critical, but also lessening the arm stress on guys like Buehrle and Garcia who could clearly use the break. Had Ozzie used this plan, we can all identify at least 4-5 games where it likely would have made the difference between winning and losing. The other option -- putting McCarthy in the rotation -- doesn't solve much. He's not used to starting this year, and might have a rocky outing or two until he adjusts. And our $10 million/year starter -- whether it's Buerhle, Vazquez, or Garcia, would have to adjust to the pen as well. Plus, any move to put a starter on the DL just robs us of pitching depth when we are facing 24 games without an off day.

Here are the overal stats for the players that typically play in those positions in our lineup, ranked by number of ABs. NAME G AB R H 2B 3B HR TB RBI BB SO SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Scott Podsednik 103 391 74 103 24 6 3 148 38 43 72 32 13 .263 .337 .379 .716 Tadahito Iguchi 92 383 67 108 15 0 12 159 48 34 82 7 3 .282 .344 .415 .759 Juan Uribe 92 325 37 80 19 2 14 145 53 10 55 0 1 .246 .271 .446 .717 Brian Anderson 90 244 32 52 15 0 6 85 26 25 64 4 4 .213 .288 .348 .637 Alex Cintron 63 208 28 57 5 2 3 75 25 9 26 8 3 .274 .309 .361 .670 Rob Mackowiak 81 194 23 58 8 1 3 77 15 21 41 5 1 .299 .374 .397 .771 Pablo Ozuna 54 117 18 40 6 1 1 51 13 5 13 5 6 .342 .379 .436 .815 We are not carrying just one Brian Anderson in the lineup. Against lefties especially, we seem to have 4 automatic outs. For example, Podsednik looks like this against lefties: .233 .290 .308 .598 Iguchi is also terrible against lefties: .218 .282 .359 .641. Mack's lefty splits are even worse, at .205 .279 .205 .484. And Anderson isn't much better. We also have guys that have hit a slump at the same time. Pods and Iguchi have both been in huge slumps. Uribe was back to terrible ways in July after a torrid June, and hasn't played lately. Ozuna has had 2 hits since he injured his legs and been thrown out 6 times versus 5 successful steals. So what can be done, if anything? If Uribe can play, I would consider sending Ozuna down to give him some ABs. Right now he's of zero value to the team. Once he starts hitting again, I would sub him for Pods or Iguchi against some lefties. When Ozuna was on early in the year, he sparked us to some wins. I would also not be afraid to use Cintron against lefties. Historically, he's been much worse from the right side. Not this year. I might also start Mack a couple of games in LF against righties to see if it lights a fire under Pods. But these tinkering moves would likely make little difference. The good news is that there is potential for considerable upside here. Both Pods and Iguchi have historically hit much better against lefties than they have lately, suggesting they have no where to go but up. We all know Uribe, if healthy, can go on an offensive tear at any time. And Brian Anderson is likely to continue to improve. In the longer run, the Sox need to find a better left fielder, hope Anderson learns how to hit, and consider replacing Uribe at SS if he doesn't flash his brilliance at the plate more than once every few months. And if Iguchi remains this helpless against lefties, he's going to need replacing too. In the meantime, we just have to hope these guys can show the skills they have shown in the past.

QUOTE(soxunited @ Aug 8, 2006 -> 07:32 PM) I think there is a reason why Ozzie has allowed his bullpen to be so well rested. It has not been stable this season with a combined ERA of 4.33. They are ranked 19th in major league baseball at this point in time by virtue of this stat. In 2005, the White Sox bullpen finished 3rd with a combined ERA of 3.23. You have to admit, the bullpen that is present today is a far cry from the efforts of last year. Yes, I would admit this. I think our bullpen could go either way. How good can Mike MacDougal be down the stretch? Can Matt Thornton keep throwing strikes? Can Neal Cotts be 90% of what he was last season? Will Ozzie use McCarthy properly, to save our starters 3 times a week? Will Bobby Jenks hold up with greater use? Has Riske figured out his release point? Still, this is a much better bullpen than we have had at any time prior to this point in the season.

QUOTE(Harry&JimmyRocked @ Aug 8, 2006 -> 07:42 PM) in your "hope" section most of that stuff is things that are not facts. they are things that people would hope would be. the dread section gives us facts and has no "well, it's go to get better right?" the only good thing goin for this team was the injuries to varitek and liriano...AND THAT'S SAD Not true. Runs scored and run differential are both significant facts in which we are currently better than our chief rivals for the WC. Plus, we do have a well-rested bullpen and 5 veteran starters. Moreover, one of key elements of the despair section -- like Ozzie's decision to leave his starters in too long and his failure to use McCarthy to save his starters and help win games -- can be changed today by Ozzie making better choices. Check out Rick Morrissey's column in the Trib today. http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...hitesox-utility As my comment says, after the Angels game on Monday, I was among those who Morrissey is writing about. But penning this post actually made me feel like there is hope for this team after all. After last night's game, I'm not shouting from the rooftops, but I feel like the hope is legitimate. GO WHITE SOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SPANK THE YANKS AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are 65-45 with 52 games left in the regular season. Reasons for hope. -- We are on pace to win 95.7 games, which I will round up to 96. I believe no team with 96 wins has missed the playoffs since the wild card was put in place. -- Our offense leads the majors in runs scored, with 625. -- We have outscored our opponents by 88 runs, which trails only Detroit (+150) and NYY (+97) in the AL. We are better in this category than our two WC rivals Boston (+59) and Minny (+70). -- We are only 15-14 in 1-run games, after leading the majors in this category last year. Any return to more normal levels should improve this success rate. -- No one thinks we have played up to our potential. -- Every one of our starting pitchers, except Jose Contreras, is currently above their career ERA totals. Regression to the mean suggests they will all pitch better from here to the end of the season. Also, - Jon Garland is on an 8-game winning streak. - Javy Vazquez pitched his best game the last time out. - Mark Buehrle gave up only 3 runs in 6 innings, following a game where he gave up only 2 runs in 6 innings. -- After months of moves, the White Sox finally have a stable and deep bullpen. And, thanks to Ozzie, it has once again pitched the fewest innings in baseball. It is rested and ready for a stretch run. Our bullpen has also blown only 12 saves -- only 5 teams have blown fewer. -- Perhaps our most dangerous rival for the Wild Card -- Minnesota -- appears to have lost its best starting pitcher -- Francisco Liriano -- to the disabled list. Given his potential, Minnesota will err on the side of caution by making sure he is completely healthy again before he pitches. When he entered the rotation, they became a threat. With him on the sidelines, they won't be as bad as they were to start the season, but they aren't the same team. -- Our other chief WC rival -- Boston -- has lost its starting catcher for a month to 6 weeks. Though he was not hitting that well, he was still the principal signal caller. Boston also has a patchwork starting staff. Their team ERA of 4.60 is barely better than our own 4.65. Reasons for despair -- We have the toughest schedule down the stretch of any of our rivals. -- Our team ERA of 4.65 is a run worse than it was last year. -- Ozzie Guillen has repeatedly left our tired starting pitchers in to lose ballgames that might have been won by using our bullpen. -- Joe Crede experienced back pain this week. Juan Uribe also is having back pains. -- The top of our lineup is pathetic against left handed pitchers. This makes us susceptible to LH starters and LOOGYs. -- The bottom of the lineup has two players -- Brian Anderson and Juan Uribe -- with OBPs under .300. Indeed, our lineup is crippled by several players with RC27 numbers that are pretty awful. Out of 176 MLB players who have enough ABs to qualify, this is where some our players would rank: BA 3.22 (would be 174th), Cintron 3.76 (would be 170th), Uribe 3.93 (is 164th), Podsednik 4.60 (is 139th). I believe we have fielded a lineup with those 4 guys hitting 8, 9, 1 and 2. -- Two of our starting pitchers could easily have their worst seasons in MLB -- Freddy Garcia and Mark Buehrle. -- Until his last start, Javy Vazquez could not get past the 6th inning or the 3rd time through opponents' lineups without getting torched and giving up leads the White Sox held. In none of those games, did Ozzie Guillen make a move to bring in Brandon McCarthy so we could win the game. COMMENT I've tried to make this a fairly objective list. And, writing it out, it actually gives me a lot more reason for hope than I otherwise had after last night's game. This team isn't nearly ready to repeat as World Series champions, but it does appear to have the potential to win the AL Wild Card race -- in part because our opponents have absorbed some blows themselves recently -- and if it gets into the playoffs, anything is possible. GO WHITE SOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Aug 8, 2006 -> 10:44 AM) Wait so you are telling me that the bullpen would have come in and given up no runs in the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th innings? Come on. There is no one in the pen pitching that well, and I know everyone is in this place where the starters have to be yanked as soon as they throw a ball, because it is the fashionable bridge to be jumping off of now, but to say that the pen would have thrown 4 scoreless innings is a joke. Even at our pens season long eras, we have to expect at least one run, and with the way Riske, Jenks, Cotts, and Thornton have thrown the ball, there is no reason to be surprised if they give up more than two runs. I would have yanked Buehrle after 6, once we got the game within a run again. McCarthy was in fact used as a long man, and gave up nothing for 2-1/3. But it was just mop-up work instead of having an opportunity to win the game. He clearly could have gotten the bottom of the Angels lineup out in the top of the 7th. On another debate -- thank Felix for rebutting Jim H re: AJ v. Crede's comparative values as hitters. Historical numbers don't mean much in this debate -- the only relevant point is how they compare as hitters now and in the future. Crede blew by AJ as a hitter last September-October after he came back from the DL, and he's carried that new hitting stroke throughout this season. I expect Crede to have a long career (though there are those lingering concerns about his back) which, if he can learn to take a walk, will put him up among the best 3Bs in the game. (If he doesn't learn how to walk, he's going to be good, but never great.) AJ, on the other hand, likely won't last much past his current 3-year contract with the Sox. Jim H -- would you pick AJ over Crede with the game on the line? Ever? And, returning to the original point -- lineup changes -- the reason to hit Crede ahead of AJ is to give him a better opportunity to drive in Thome/Konerko/Dye in the 6 hole than he has in the 7 hole. With AJ's OBP not that great, there are a fair number of times when he makes the 3rd out with men on base. I'd much rather give Crede a shot in those circumstances than AJ.

Well, Ozzie didn't do #2 (use McCarthy as a long man) or #3 (play to win every game) last night, and instead of a game likely tied 3-3 after 9, we lost. OZZIE SHOULD BE FIRED FOR BEING SO PIGHEADED! YOU HAVE TO MANAGE THE TEAM YOU HAVE, NOT THE TEAM YOU WANT TO HAVE!!

QUOTE(JimH @ Aug 4, 2006 -> 03:10 PM) Crede is hitting .299 this year and is a lifetime .263 hitter. Pierzynski is hitting .320 this year and is a lifetime .291 hitter. And in this case, stats aren't lying. You're kidding, right? Batting average is the most worthless offensive stat in baseball. C'mon. You may have it in for me, but I would have given you more credit than to put up this nonsense. By every measure of true offensive value, Crede has emerged as a vastly better offensive player than AJ Pierzynski. Crede's one main weakness is his walk totals are PATHETIC. But AJ's totals are not worth writing home about.

We've already been through the "toughest stretch of the season" -- it was the 15 games against Boston, NYY, Det, Tex, Minny that straddled the ASG. During that stretch we went 3-12.

I, too, groaned over the loss of Chris Young. But you have to put this trade in some perspective. At the time we acquired Vazquez, we did not have Garland or Contreras under contract extensions. We were facing the potential exodus of probably our two best starters, with McCarthy at best available to fill one of those potential holes. By bringing in Vazquez, I think it helped KW make the case to both Garland and Contreras to sign the contracts they did. Now, has Vazquez turned it around? Certainly he has to prove it. Is Vazquez a big-game pitcher? Well, he's never pitched a big game in his life. But stuff-wise, he's as good as we have right now. And he has had good stretches during most of his seasons. We just need him to put one of those together over the next two months.

Well, since I have been advocating Dye hitting in the #3 hole since before the season started, needless to say I agree. But I wouldn't hit Thome 4th. I think I'd hit him 5th. There are a few reasons for this. First, the LOOGY problem won't really be defeated with Dye alone in the #3 hole, since during a lot of threats, they could just intentionally walk Dye to have the LOOGY pitch to Thome. Second, while Thome is certainly better than Konerko, I think Paulie is really most comfortable in the #4 hole. Third, since Thome is going to hit the most HRs, it helps having him come up more often with men on base. Both Dye and Konerko have much better OBPs than Pods or Iguchi (and way better than Uribe/Anderson). Hitting 5th, Thome is more likely to have 3-run homers. With Thome hitting 5th, this also means Joe Crede should move up from 7th to 6th, with AJ sliding back a slot. This puts our 4 best hitters together for a change. As for the comment about the late season change, it certainly worked last year. Dye didn't hit 3rd until our 16-1 streak to end the season. Given our tenuous hold on the playoffs, I'd say we can't wait until the end of the year this time to make a similar move.

Javy's game was certainly impressive, but I thought the home plate ump was also helping him by calling all pitches on and off the edges Ks. Let's see if he can battle mentally through an ump that squeezes the plate. Still, a win is a win, and it would be fabulous if we had one less starter that we had to baby. Gosh, is it possible that Garland, Contreras, Vazquez and Buehrle could all pitch well down the stretch? If so, we ought to be able to help Garcia get some wins too. EVERY GAME IS CRITICAL, OZZIE. PLAY TO WIN!

Here's the key language: "I can't afford to [be overconfident] with any of my pitchers," Guillen said. "I'd rather go into the seventh, eighth, ninth innings down one run instead of six or five. With the kind of bullpen we have right now, if I see someone struggle, I'll be thinking [about replacing him]. "If you have a chance to win, I'll let you win. But if I give you that chance and you go down three runs, then I'm not going to give you that chance." ***************** It's about time. We should have won Vazquez's last 3 starts, with JV getting the win each time. He's led every game by 2 runs after 5, and the games were against key divisional rivals. What gets me is he used McCarthy for two innings last night after Garland was used up. Why not just plan to have McCarthy get 2-3 innings every time JV and Garcia get the start? Personally, I believe McCarthy ought to get a lot more innings these last two months. He's gone less than 60 innings, and 120 shouldn't be any stress on his arm.

If you were Ozzie right now, what 3 things would you do to try to spark the team on an August-September run? This is what I would do. 1. Change the lineup. The top 3 hitters -- Pods/Iguchi/Thome -- are all much worse to just worse against left handed pitchers. Thus, not only do we have a poor record against lefty starters, but late in games it is easy for opposing managers to use a LOOGY against 3 guys instead of 1 or 2. I would break this up by hitting Jermaine Dye 3rd and slide Thome to 5th. Dye may walk less, but he also strikes out less. So he's a better bet to get a guy home from 3B with less than 2 outs. Plus, we played our best baseball last year with Dye hitting 3rd, where he forces himself to be a more patient hitter. (I'm also concerned that Thome's wrist and back may reduce his production over the next two months, making Dye clearly better.) With Thome 5th, I also move Crede permanently into the 6 hole, since he's a much better hitter than AJ Pierzynski. AJ would hit 7th, followed by Uribe and Anderson. 2. Use McCarthy in true long relief. This one slays me. Ozzie has almost never used McCarthy in a role in which he might excell, and help us win games at the same time. To my mind, every game started by Vazquez and Garcia should be taken over by McCarthy in the 6th inning for a 2-3 inning stint. McCarthy could help both of these guys win ballgames we are losing in the mid-late innings. If Buehrle needs help, I'd use McCarthy there too. This guy has pitched only 56 innings so far this year. His arm will be fine if we give him another 60-70 innings in the next two months. 3. Play to win every day. Ozzie needs to play to try to win that day's game every day. The time is past where we can afford to lose a game while trying to build someone's confidence. We need to put building the team's confidence first by winning ballgames one day at a time. GO SOX!! Let's start it off by beating Roy Halladay!!!

QUOTE(Leonard Zelig @ Aug 2, 2006 -> 10:52 PM) Not trying to start an argument, but in what way has Konerko outperformed Crede this year? Paul has a bunch more walks, which leads to a higher OBP, but other than that the numbers are surprisingly similar. Sox stats Conveniently they are the top two on the page. But walks are important because the alternative usually means making an out. I think RC27 (runs created per game by a team filled with 9 of those players) is still the best and most easily understood measure of a player's offensive value. Looking at that, Jim Thome comes up 4th in baseball at 9.27, Jermaine Dye is 7th at 8.48 (I ranked him above Thome, however, because he plays the field), Paul Konerko is 37th at 6.93, and Crede is 66th at 6.15. It's the walks that make up almost all of that difference. At 16 walks (Crede's number when I posted this thread), Crede is off-the-charts bad at this. What he seems to have learned to do is to get his bat on all those borderline pitches to foul them off -- thus the very low K totals. What he needs to learn is to judge those pitches balls and take them for walks. Of course, the Sox are filled with players who have no idea how to walk -- AJ Pierzynski, Juan Uribe, Sandy Alomar, Jr. -- so Crede has plenty of company.

QUOTE(JimH @ Aug 2, 2006 -> 05:22 PM) Wrong. Okay, what was the offer, and do you have a link?

Last offseason, one of the three biggest priorties I thought the Sox should have was signing Joe Crede to a contract through his remaining arbitration years plus an additional year. With some uncertainty remaining over his back and having not yet had a monster year at the plate, it seemed to me that, despite having Scott Boras as his agent, that he would have come at a considerable discount off his true abilities. The Sox accomplished the other priorities (resigning Contreras and Garland, our two best starters at the moment), but didn't even approach Crede with an offer. Now I think Crede is proving all the doubters wrong by having the kind of monster offensive year he always should have had. I expect him to get better. The main thing that still holds him back offensively is that he is terrible at taking a walk. (Among ML 3Bs, he is 3rd in slugging, 3rd in HRs, and 4th in RBI, with the second fewest K's.) Anyway, in honor of his great performance yesterday, I thought I would ask where people rank him among the Sox position players. Please consider all phases of the game -- offense and defense -- when ranking him. This would be my ranking of our position players: 1. Dye 2. Thome 3. Konerko 4. Crede And I think within 2 years and certainly 3 years, Crede may well be equal to or ahead of all of three of those guys as they begin to decline with age. This guy is critical to the success of the White Sox.

There's a little blurb on it on the Sox' site that says it didn't appear serious.

The Abreu deal disgusts me. Yanks buy the best player who moved at the deadline because no one else could afford his contract. And they gave up nothing in return. This move was baseball at its absolute worst. Abreu, frankly, belonged in Chicago as a lead off hitter in place of Podsednik, playing for his Venezuelan countryman, Ozzie Guillen. And we could have used the improved outfield defense, the much better OBP, and his ability to hit lefties and righties. But Abreu wouldn't have brought us another title, and his presence on the Yanks isn't going to deny us another title. That all comes down to starting pitching, as it almost always does. If our starting pitchers can find their fastballs and control, we still have the best team in baseball. If they continue to perform with ERAs at 4.77 runs a game, no amount of offense will help us.

QUOTE(Balance @ Jul 26, 2006 -> 05:21 PM) Official record for that 15-game stretch? 3-12. Much worse, we lost 9 games in the standings to Minnesota in a span of 12 games. If we were a division leader, that would have to rank as an historic meltdown.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Jul 26, 2006 -> 02:22 PM) At the end of the day, the players execute. Or, the manager shouldn't allow them to execute poorly. In the end, they're both to blame. So you're both right. How hard was that? At this point, now that Minnesota has caught us, it is going to take the players executing for us to have any shot of making the postseason. And it was always going to take that. But in a tight race, the manager can win or lose you the games that decide who plays on and who goes home in October. And as I wrote elsewhere, I think Ozzie has lost his way. He had to pull the right strings last year to win all those 1-run games. But this year, when the team has changed, he seems to have lost his focus. Those episodes yelling at Tracey and then Garland for not beaning someone -- well maybe worse has gone on in the past -- just lost me.

QUOTE(JimH @ Jul 26, 2006 -> 01:16 PM) I completely got the point and I refuted it by saying every single little thing you posted was about the players failing to execute. Do you understand? The campground calls, maybe there is a new treasure trove of haikus there. If you don't like your rambling points being refuted, perhaps put me on ignore. I guess I'm always left wondering why you seem to go out of your way to attack me. What's up with that? I don't care if you agree with me, but you don't have to make it a personal attack.

QUOTE(JimH @ Jul 25, 2006 -> 12:06 PM) The point being, the players are the ones who perform and get the job done, or in the case of the White Sox recently, don't get the job done. Regarding his "rant on the manager" thread yesterday, every single point he made blaming the manager is actually a case of a player not performing. He is a guy who shows faith in his players, he showed tons of faith in Garland last year, in direct contrast to what Manuel did. Guess what, Garland blossomed. Coincidence? I think not. He has shown faith in Garcia this year, Garcia has been mediocre at best but he pitched extremely well his last outing. Start of a turnaround? Who knows. Buerhle has been awful lately, should he yank him out of the rotation or show faith in him? He'll show faith in Buehrle. Vazquez pitched into the 6th last nite on a relatively low pitch count, personally I saw no reason for him to come out for the 7th even though he made two decent pitches and got beat on the two HR's. I suspect they will go to 12 pitchers shortly, KW will acquire someone and it wouldn't surprise me if they were showcasing Gload (that didn't work out either, he went 0-4 I think). Talk about losing your team, losing your clubhouse, etc. - ask any fired manager who didn't show faith in his players and they'll tell you it's the quickest way to lose the clubhouse. And at the end of the day, if the manager shows faith in the players and they don't succeed, that means they need better players. As for misusing players, that can be argued all day and all nite. If the guy succeeds it was a good move, if he doesn't, it's a bad move. Personally I think the manager gets too much credit and too much blame. Players around the league want to play here, he gets credit for that. But ultimately, to me, it falls on the players. It is their job to perform. I trust that's adding enough to the thread pcullota. The point of this post was grasped by others, but apparently not by you. Going into this 15 game stretch, we had an opportunity to take control of the season. Had we gone 10-5 against Boston, NY, Detroit, Texas, and Minnesota, there would be no doubt that the 2006 White Sox were the best team in baseball, with everyone else scrambling to find a way to beat us. In other words, I thought these 15 games would really define our season. Well, it turns out they have defined our season, but in a way none of saw coming. My rant against Ozzie is an entirely separate matter and the subject of a different post. But let me explain for a moment why my ire is directed at him primarily. First, sure the players should suck it up, but sometimes that is easier said than done. How will Buerhle get his pitches down again? What would allow Javy Vazquez to keep from throwing fat pitches the third time through the lineup? Where is Freddy Garcia going to get extra velocity on his fastball? Can Pods really hit a left hander if he just concentrates more? By contrast, the things Ozzie could do differently are right there to be done. There's nothing stopping him. It is all about putting players in the best position to succeed. If they don't, then there is nothing more the manager can do. But if he's making obvious mistakes that cost in crucial situations, then that's on him. Second, if we're lucky, the playoffs are going to be made or lost this year based on 2-3 games out of 162. We don't have any margin for error at this point. In fact, it may already be too late. Minnesota could play .650 ball from here to the end of the season, and we may not be able to keep up. But let's assume for the moment that isn't the case. Those 2-3 wins are going to be made or broken based on Ozzie Guillen's decisions. Just in the latest stretch, we've seen back-to-back critical starts by Javy Vazquez where using the bullpen could have kept us in the lead against our two AL Central rivals. Those losses may keep us out of the playoffs. I hang both of them on Ozzie. As for having faith in the players, I agree that Ozzie's touch worked wonders LAST YEAR. But he also had the luxury of a HUGE lead that, even if it was lost, would have likely resulted in a wild card playoff berth. This year, we no longer have such luxury, yet Ozzie appears to manage as if we do. I come back to a point I have made on several posts, because it was so striking. It was a comment Bobby Cox -- Ozzie's key managerial mentor -- made in response to an off-camera interview on Sunday Night Baseball. When asked what he was doing to bring the team back from its horrible slide, he said all he was trying to do was WIN TONIGHT'S BALL GAME. I think Ozzie has lost that focus.