Sox Machine: Chicago White Sox blog

First-quarter progress report: Ozzie Guillen

When it was all said and done, the job Ozzie Guillen did in 2007 was beyond criticism.  I'm not saying it was a bravura performance.  I'm saying no matter how you slice it, there was no way he could've fielded a major-league lineup or bullpen.

You can pick a nit with individual decisions here and there, but considering he never dropped a deuce on the plate while arguing balls and strikes after a four-pitch bases-loaded walk, he won the day.  We're not talking high standards here.

That said, Guillen entered 2008 with as much to prove as anybody.  Kenny Williams armed him with veteran relievers and multiple major-league outfielders and his starters had fewer excuses. He didn't want to babysit any more, and Williams assured him he wouldn't.

INTEGRATING THE NEW PIECES

It's easy to give Jerry Owens more credit than Guillen for the way the outfield has shaped up.  His adductor injury tripped an extremely fortunate set of dominoes.

If Owens makes it through spring training with his legs, it's quite possible Carlos Quentin starts the season in Triple-A, as Brian Anderson gives the Sox a fourth outfielder who can play all three positions, which Guillen prefers.

And if Owens is playing, he's leading off.  Without a traditional leadoff hitter, Guillen went to Nick Swisher and his traditionally strong OBP, which paid early dividends and befuddled the "...but...but...speeeeeed!" crowd.

One could point to the early season starts of Alexei Ramirez as Guillen's pro-Owens inclinations.  Though he put up impressive numbers in his first spring training, he had easily exploitable holes in his plate approach and stood little to no chance of carrying his momentum into April.

But Ramirez only started two games before Guillen gave Quentin a shot.  Quentin has started every game since.  Swisher's subsequent struggles after Tax Day and Juan Uribe's cold April allowed Guillen to go back to his previous weapon of choice or try energy ball Pablo Ozuna in the leadoff spot instead.  He repeatedly said, "Thanks, but no thanks," even though the below-average team speed exacerbated what was already ugly baseball.

The usage of Swisher and Quentin have been Ozzie's most pleasant developments to date.  On the other hand, the team's surest bet for an upgrade has been the weakest link in terms of Guillen's lineup construction.  Orlando Cabrera has hit either first or second in every game he's played even though the walkless Toby Hall owns a higher on-base percentage.  He was touted as a "set it and forget it" type guy, and Ozzie has been loath to disrupt him even though there hasn't been much to disrupt.

Out in the bullpen, Octavio Dotel -- Sunday aside -- and Scott Linebrink have made Dewon Day a distant memory.

HANDLING THE STARTERS

I can only quibble with two decisions Ozzie has made with his starters:

• Leaving Jose Contreras in one batter too long against the Yankees April 22.
• Removing a dominant Javier Vazquez after eight innings in the suspeneded game with the Orioles.
  

And both could be defensible.

Guillen may have helped Contreras get on track with some tough love -- after dropping down way too much in his first start of the season, Guillen ripped him.  He's cut the number of sidearmed fastballs and found his forkball, and he hasn't looked this good since the first couple months of 2006.

Meanwhile, though Guillen may not want to admit it, he's developing young players.  John Danks and Gavin Floyd have three 100-pitch outings between them -- and two of them were no-hitters taken into the eighth and ninth innings.  Would he have pulled a veteran pitcher after 81 pitches through six innings of two-hit ball?  Or at 96 pitches with two outs in the eighth?  Probably not, but he's right in being conservative.

By comparison, Guillen is letting Vazquez go far deeper into games -- yet not ridiculously so.  Javy ranks 19th in Baseball Prospectus' Pitcher Abuse Points, behind young arms like Tim Lincecum, Cole Hamels and Scott Olsen (Danks might be in this crowd in the National League).  He stretched Javy out to 121 pitches in a 1-0 complete game loss to Toronto, but has cut his starts shorter elsewhere, like in the eight-inning no decision against Baltimore and at seven shutout innings and 92 pitches against Detroit.  So far, Vazquez is under his 2007 averages of pitches per inning and pitches per game.

Mark Buehrle is the only real question mark at this point.  Maybe Ozzie should be more aggressive in getting Buehrle out of meltdown situations, but I can't specifically name one mistake by Guillen in this regard.

DEPLOYING RELIEVERS

With Bobby Jenks apparently out of the woods after his annual slow start, he and Linebrink make the last two innings no-brainer decisions when the Sox have a lead.  Meanwhile, giving Dotel time to work through his initial struggles has proved to be a smart decision.

At the other extreme, Guillen did everything he could to save Mike MacDougal from himself.  MacDougal pitched in exactly one high-leverage situation, after he strung together three successful full-inning outings.  He failed, and Guillen relegated him to mop-up duty until his demotion.

But now that Ehren Wassermann is apparently Deutsch for "Shingo Takatsu" and no automatic upgrades waiting in the wings down in Charlotte, Guillen has a tougher job on his hands figuring out the middle innings.

The first part would probably be to give Matt Thornton a few more looks.  It's hard to figure out which Thornton will show up -- the dominant, two-strikeouts-an-inning version or the hittable-first-pitch one.  At the same time, he's gone through stretches where he's pitched twice in 12 days and faced one batter over four while Dotel, Jenks and Linebrink are pitching on back-to-back-to-back days.  Ozzie needs to figure out exactly what Thorndog can give him.

I don't have any real qualms with Boone Logan's handling.  After blowing not one, but two games against the Orioles and getting burned by Justin Morneau at the end of April, Guillen hasn't thrown him in the fire this month.  It's probably for the better, though he is coming off a perfect two-thirds of the seventh against the Giants.

Ozzie's first real gamble with Nick Masset worked out beautifully Sunday, but it's unclear what it means for Masset's future in terms of leverage.

BLIND SPOTS

None of Guillen's individual decisions have hampered the team like, say, giving the center field job to Owens with no reservations likely would have.  But here are three things I think could cost the Sox some games in the coming months if they go unchecked:

1. Jim Thome.  Guillen is doing all he can to help the Gentleman Masher through his season-opening slump, and maybe the game-winning single will catapult him back to his usual standard of play.  But if this is the year Thome hits the wall, Guillen may have to get creative to get production from the DH spot and platoon a veteran.  If Josh Fields rebounds from his patellar tendinitis, that's the first place to look.  If nothing else, it would upgrade a sad bench (which Guillen has smartly stayed away from).

2. Orlando Cabrera.  Maybe the two homers he hit Sunday will signal the start of a revival, but Cabrera has been an out machine at the top of the order and wasting precious opportunities for Quentin.  With Swisher starting to see hits dropping and A.J. Pierzynski taking to the second spot, dropping Cabrera in the order would be a good first step. Guillen has described Cabrera as a field general, but that shouldn't mean that he's beyond managing.

3. Jermaine Dye in right.  Dye's startling lack of giddyup is either laugh-until-you-cry material or cry-until-you-laugh material.  Whichever one you choose, it's clear that tragicomedy doesn't win games.  For every diving catch he makes, there are at least two balls he's not able to get to.  Flipping Quentin and Dye is such a natural idea that it's hard to believe it hasn't been mentioned once anywhere.  Besides the blogs, I mean.

PUBLICITY GRABS

Who cares?

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BULLETIN: Carlos Quentin is just terrific. No, really.

If Quentin can finish the season anywhere close to how he's started it, he'll pretty much make Chris Young a nonfactor, even though he's an outstanding player in his own right.  Here's the ledger with Arizona:

• Arizona gets: Young, Orlando Hernandez, Luis Vizcaino, Chris Carter.
• Chicago gets: Vazquez, Quentin

The Diamondbacks won the short-term deal.  Young helped Arizona reach the postseason in his first full season, while neither Brian Anderson or Ryan Sweeney were the answer in center field and Vazquez didn't make the impact the Sox expected in his first season.  But with the rejuvenation and contract extension of Vazquez and Quentin's Hulk-like transformation, Williams may have made up for the risk and then some.

Add in the Danks-McCarthy deal, and it seems to back up the theory that Williams is a much, much better GM when he swings for the fences.  Although his team seems to do the same a little too much.

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Minor league roundup:

• Birmingham 13, Jacksonville 5
• Miguel Negron went 3-for-6 out of the leadoff spot with two homers and four RBI.
• Victor Mercedes homered and drove in four.
• Dave Cook, Micah Schnurstein and Robert Hudson also had two hits apiece.
• Carlos Torres pitched well -- 5 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 K -- but Shaun Babula vultured the win.
• Hagerstown 5, Kannapolis 2
• Anthony Carter struck out eight over six innings but gave up a season-high four earned runs in defeat.
• Luis Sierra hit a two-run homer to provide all Kanny's runs.
• Charlotte OFF
• Winston-Salem OFF