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Magic in the Land of Ozzie


YASNY

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On Soxtalk, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen has been the recipient of

numerous barbs, criticisms and personal attacks on his intelligence,

sexual preferences and integrity. Guillen has been accused of being just

plain stupid. He's been accused of being the dominant partner in

homosexual B&D relationships with various players, the logic being that

was way this or that particular player could possibly get any playing

time. His integrity has been questioned with accusations of racism due

to the perception by some that Guillen has been showing favoritism to

Latino players. He's also been accused of being crazy. Ozzie Guillen may

be crazy, but he's crazy like a fox.

 

While all the Soxtalk experts b****ing, moaning, ranting and raving,

Ozzie Guillen was guiding a team that was picked by preseason

prognosticators to finish in third or fourth place in the A. L. Central

division to a division championship. Not only did the White Sox win the

division, but they were never headed as they were on top of the division

from the first game to the last. He accomplished this while having to

reshuffle his bullpen throughout the course of the season. To begin that

season, the southside cult hero from Japan, Shingo Takatsu, was the

closer. Due to ineffectiveness, Takatsu was demoted from the closer role

and eventually given his unconditional release. Bring on wily veteran

Dustin Hermanson to assume the closer's role. Hermanson stepped into the

role and filled it admirably. Of course, there were residual effects to

this move as others would have to step up and fill the setup roles.

Generally, a change like this would weaken the overall effectiveness of

the bullpen. Not in this case, however. Guillen had prepared for just

this situation, by putting pitchers into crucial game situations that he

believed the pitcher had a good chance of being successful. In other

words, he game these pitchers the opportunity to step up and perform. If

they failed, Guillen took the critcism and then gave that particular

pitcher another opportunity to perform. He didn't rotate them to the end

of the bullpen bench. He showed confidence in them, yet he demanded

success from them. Guillen, never one to pull a proverbial punch, would

tell these pitchers exactly what kind of approach he expected of them.

He was not concerned with today's results as much as he was concerned

with the long term results. More problems arose, however, as newly

annointed closer Hermanson started have problems with his back. Into the

picture steps 24 year old Bobby Jenks. He of the 100 mph heater, half of

a season closing at AA Birmingham and a past history of arm problems

along with binge drinking. Once again, Guillen took this very

questionable young pitcher and groomed him by giving him the opportunity

to succeed before throwing him into high pressure situations. When the

need for Jenks to stap into the closer's role was there, the third closer

of the season, he was ready to assume the role.

 

The starting rotation was anchored by inning eating horses Mark Buehrle

and Freddie Garcia followed by three question marks heading into the

season. Buehrle and Garcia could be counted on to take the ball every

fifth game, pitch 200 plus innings and each put up a victory total

somehwere in the "teens". After these two, there was the inconsistant

Jon Garland, the perplexing Jose Contreras and the aging Orlando

Hernandez. Garland had been a sometimes dominant, other times maddingly

ineffective .500 pitcher with an ERA about 5.00. Not good, not bad, but

not enough. Garland came through with 18 wins and an all-star gaqme

appearance. The seeds for his turn around were sown in 2004 when Guillen

gave him the opportunity to learn how to win by allowing to the

opportunity to succeed or fail. Contreras was an classic example of an

enigma. The man had a wealth of talent, but didn't have the know how or

the confidence to put it to use. It took Guillen and pitching coach Don

Cooper about a year, from the time he was acquired for former Cy Young

candidate Estaban Loaiza on July 31, 2004, get Contreras to believe in

his fastball and his abilities. In the second half of the 2005 season,

Contreras went from shaky number 4 starter and potential trade bait to

the staff ace. Things didn't work out so well with the againg Hernandez.

"El Duque" broke down over the course of the season. He went through a

period on the disabled list, but was still ineffective upon his return.

Fortunately, young Brandon McCarthy had found his groove in AAA Charlotte

and stepped into Hernandez' spot in the rotation and help keep the

wolves, I mean the Indians, at bay. All in all, not bad for a manager who

has no clue on how to handle a pitching staff, according to many of the

self-proclaimed experts on Soxtalk.

 

Of course, Guillen also had no clue as to how and when to use his bench

and rest his starting position players. His "Sunday lineup" was the

source of much derision and teeth gnashing from the highly qualified

experts on Soxtalk. Ozzie was an idiot for resting catcher A. J.

Piersynski during a day game after a night game, usually before "getaway

day" with independant league retread backup Chris Widger. But wait,

slowly, gradually, it dawned on some of the experts that Widger was a

pretty solid ballplayer in his own right. Guillen tried to keep fresh

the legs of leadoff man and basestealer Scott Podsednik by playing Timo

Perez in his place. He'd put Perez in the leadoff spot, much to the

chagrin of those experts. Was Perez your prototypical leadoff man? Of

course, not. But, the rest of the guys were in there accustomed spots in

the lineup and not shuffled around. Of course, these same experts used

to criticize former manager Jerry Manuel for "tinkering" with the lineup

in previous years. Whenever RF Jermaine Dye or 2B Tadahito Iguchi were

rested, the teeth gnashing would commence, as well. You know what? That

dips*** Ozzie led his team to 99 wins and a division championship.

 

Next, of course, comes the post season. I could go into the debate that

raged here when Guillen decided to add the old, broken down Orlando

Hernandez over young gun Brandon McCarthy to the post season roster.

But, we all know Ozzie's reasons, now, for doing so and how that worked

out in the ALDS. Would McCarthy have done as well? We'll never know.

What we do know, however, is that the defending world champs have been

swept aside and the White Sox are moving on to the ALCS. El Duque played

a big part in that accomplishment.

 

Now we have situation of Damaso Marte. Guillen has decided to keep Marte

on the roster after his meltdown in Boston. Is the right decision? Will

this come back to bite the Sox on the ass? I don't know. You don't

know. Ozzie doesn't know. However, Ozzie does seem to have a knack for

making the right decisions in these kinds of situations. It may not work

out for the Sox, but I'm going to put my trust in Ozzie, Coop and KW.

They've led this team farther than any other combination of managers,

pitching coaches and GM's have done in my 4+ decades of being a Sox fan.

 

 

Edited to eliminate double spacing.

Edited by YASNY
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Great post!

 

That's what I've been believing all season long. Put your trust and faith in Ozzie, your White Sox manager. There's a reason why he's out there, and all of us manager wannabes are managing in front of our computer. Of course, Ozzie is not perfect. There is absolutely not a single manager out there currently or in the history of baseball who is perfect. They all make mistakes like all of us have. What Ozzie gives to the team is what I feel utmost important. Gut, Believe in themselves, Challenge his players, Make them rise to the occasion, Never-give-up mentality and finally, Make the players believe in him.

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Great post!

 

And I agree, there have been lots of moments that I found myself questioning his logic (or in my mind, lack there-of) only to find myself being the wrong one.

 

I am not saying he is right 100% of the time, but a little blind faith in this guy will not hurt anyone.

 

For us, its just time to sit back, relax (as-if that will happen :P ) and enjoy this ride, because I think its FAR from over.....

 

:gosox1: :gosox2: :gosox3: :gosox4: :gosoxretro:

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QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Oct 10, 2005 -> 09:45 AM)
I wonder about the reaction this would have gotten in the midst of our "losing" streak against teams like the Royals.  :lol:

 

But that was a great post YAS, how long did you spend workin on it?

 

About 20 minutes. I composed it on MS Notepad, so I apologize about the couble spacing. I wasn't anticipating that.

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QUOTE(chisox72 @ Oct 10, 2005 -> 08:36 AM)
For us, its just time to sit back, relax (as-if that will happen  :P ) and enjoy this ride, because I think its FAR from over.....

 

I think you mean that we should sit back, relax, and strap it down.

 

Oh, and I agree entirely with this post. Awesome job!

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I still don't think I am wrong for disliking Ozzie Guillen as an in-game manager. Bad managers have had seasons of over 90 wins in the past, great managers have had seasons where they didn't reach 70 wins.

 

I attribute much more of our success to KW. It's pretty amazing when you think of the new contributing players he added to this team in one year's time. Podsednik, Dye, Iguchi, Pierzynski, Ozuna, Widger, Garcia, Contreras, Hernandez, Hermanson, Vizcaino, Jenks.

 

However, I do like the fact that all the players seem to love playing for Guillen (except Marte?) This kept our team in good spirits throughout the season and obviously had some effect on the players KW was able to sign.

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QUOTE(3E8 @ Oct 10, 2005 -> 12:11 PM)
I still don't think I am wrong for disliking Ozzie Guillen as an in-game manager.  Bad managers have had seasons of over 90 wins in the past, great managers have had seasons where they didn't reach 70 wins.

 

I attribute much more of our success to KW.  It's pretty amazing when you think of the new contributing players he added to this team in one year's time.  Podsednik, Dye, Iguchi, Pierzynski, Ozuna, Widger, Garcia, Contreras, Hernandez, Hermanson, Vizcaino, Jenks.

 

However, I do like the fact that all the players seem to love playing for Guillen (except Marte?)  This kept our team in good spirits throughout the season and obviously had some effect on the players KW was able to sign.

 

Ozzie did have a whole lot of affects in persuading KW to change to "small ball" philosophy. If your players do not believe in you, no matter who you've brought in, it doesn't matter anyway.

 

My question to you is should Manuel still be around, would KW move to "small ball" philosophy? Remember ONLY with the "small ball" philosophy that KW went out and got all of those grinding players. Give that question some time before answer it.

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QUOTE(S720 @ Oct 10, 2005 -> 12:38 PM)
Ozzie did have a whole lot of affects in persuading KW to change to "small ball" philosophy.  If your players do not believe in you, no matter who you've brought in, it doesn't matter anyway. 

 

My question to you is should Manuel still be around, would KW move to "small ball" philosophy?  Remember ONLY with the "small ball" philosophy that KW went out and got all of those grinding players.  Give that question some time before answer it.

The biggest factor in our success is our pitching. All the starting rotation and bullpen help has nothing to do with small ball. So cross about half of KW's newly obtained players off the small ball list.

 

AJP is not small ball. Dye is not small ball. Iguchi is sometimes forced to play small ball, but arguably would've had better stats had he not adopted that method. He even said himself several times that he'd rather not play that way.

 

Podsednik and Ozuna are the only small ball acquisitions KW made. One of them is a bench player. Pods is behind at least 10 other players in terms of total production to this team.

 

So as you can see, we are not a small ball team. We hit 200 home runs and scored more runs off the HR than most everyone else. The few players on this team who could be considered small ball only helped a small fraction compared to those players who would not be considered small ball.

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QUOTE(3E8 @ Oct 10, 2005 -> 12:11 PM)
I still don't think I am wrong for disliking Ozzie Guillen as an in-game manager.  Bad managers have had seasons of over 90 wins in the past, great managers have had seasons where they didn't reach 70 wins.

 

I attribute much more of our success to KW.  It's pretty amazing when you think of the new contributing players he added to this team in one year's time.  Podsednik, Dye, Iguchi, Pierzynski, Ozuna, Widger, Garcia, Contreras, Hernandez, Hermanson, Vizcaino, Jenks.

 

However, I do like the fact that all the players seem to love playing for Guillen (except Marte?)  This kept our team in good spirits throughout the season and obviously had some effect on the players KW was able to sign.

 

You are still missing the point. Ozzie's "in game" decisions were not designed to win one game today. They were designed to win several more games later. He has always had to thing beyond "today's game" and look to the long term. When he used Jenks for that 2 inning save against Boston, he was thinking "today's game". He has that luxury now, to a limited extent.

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Nice post, Yasny. I won't even pretend that I've never gotten pissed off or questioned some of the moves made by Ozzie this year. I feel I have that right as a fan. That's all. I know I'm no expert. I also realize beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ozzie knows MUCH, MUCH more about the game than I do. But I don't think it's so wrong to give imput as a fan to what Ozzie is or isn't doing. Now as far as the personal attacks on Ozzie, you're totally right. That kinda stuff is just stupid and really uncalled for.

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QUOTE(Jordan4life_2005 @ Oct 11, 2005 -> 03:14 AM)
Nice post,  Yasny.  I won't even pretend that I've never gotten pissed off or questioned some of the moves made by Ozzie this year.  I feel I have that right as a fan.  That's all.  I know I'm no expert.  I also realize beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ozzie knows MUCH,  MUCH more about the game than I do.  But I don't think it's so wrong to give imput as a fan to what Ozzie is or isn't doing.  Now as far as the personal attacks on Ozzie,  you're totally right.  That kinda stuff is just stupid and really uncalled for.

 

Thanks. And yes, you do have the right to question his moves. No doubt about it. I question some of them at times, as well. However, I generally recognize the fact that Ozzie has much more information about the players and knows infinitely more about the game than I can ever hope to know. I know this much, though. As Ozzie was making some of his "stupid in game decisions" over the course of the season, I would step back and look at the big picture more than just the current situation during the game. I could see what he was trying to do, in a general way. I didn't know if he'd be successful at it, but as that bullpen came together and guys like Cotts and Politte stepped up and produced, his questionable decisions were validated in my mind.

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