Ozzie Guillen

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Front office talk, occasionally about baseball

Friday, March 12th, 2010

Don Cooper, occasionally sounding like he’s on autotune, appeared on Boers and Bernstein, and the rumor is true — he’s not a fan of the cameras.

B&B: Coop, are we going to see you prominently displayed on that MLB reality show? Or are you trying to hide when the cameras are popping up.

Cooper: You know what? To tell you the truth, I’m not all that comfortable with it … it’s kind of like foreigners being in on our meetings and things like that… the other day, I kinda got miked up for the game, and I hadn’t done that in seven years. Seven years ago, I got miked up for a game, felt extremely uncomfortable, did not enjoy it, and for the life of me, I have no idea why I said “yes” to it the other day. And 10 minutes after I got started, I said, “What in the hell did I get myself into?” Because I could not have fun with it. I just didn’t feel like I could be myself.

The guy who heckled Cooper the other day?  He’s 80 years old, and not an MLB Network plant, according to Scott Reifert.

Meanwhile, Ozzie Guillen says he has dropped plans for a personal website because “a few guys from the front office didn’t like the idea.”  Reifert said the communications staff didn’t have any problems.  Maybe Kenny Williams did, though:

‘‘Don’t ask me another question about Twitter, websites [sic], blog, radio shows, non [sic] of that [crap],’’ Williams wrote in a text message. ‘‘All I care about is players playing, coaches coaching and managers managing. If they do that and do it well, we got no problems, but if they don’t …’’

Opening Day can’t come soon enough.

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Rick Hahn, by comparison, got off easy.  He sat down for a conference call with some White Sox bloggers/site operators, and while he had to take numerous questions about unpopular/unclear decisions — Scott Linebrink’s contract, the rotating DH, Mark Teahen’s extension — at least he was talking about baseball, and not social media.

But who knows? Maybe he’s a big Mashable guy.  Some highlights…

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Book news, and more self-promotion

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Good news — my proof copy of White Sox Outsider 2010 is hitting the printer.  I’m going to give it a once-over for quality control, and when it (hopefully) passes the test, I should be able to put it up for sale sometime next week (Tuesday? Wednesday?) .  Thank Johnny Damon and my corrupt database for the delay.  And thank you for your patience.

A simple link dump will have to suffice today. I’m through with you, words.

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When is flexibility constraining? When you’re Ozzie Guillen

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

The first rule of talking about Ozzie Guillen’s decision to pass on Jim Thome is, “Don’t talk about Jim Thome.”

There are reasons on passing on the Gentleman Masher himself.  He lost something off his bat speed, he missed more fastballs, his contact rate overall dropped, his strikeout rate increased, and he lost something off his isolated power, too.  He’d still be productive with another year of a gentle decline, but he’s a risk to fall off a cliff, get hurt, or both.

Here’s why the Thome decision is causing so much outrage.  Even at age 38, high-maintenance and declining, Thome still handily outproduced the players he’s being pushed aside to make room for:

PA HR BB K BA OBP SLG
Thome 417 23 69 116 0.249 0.372 0.493
DH Stew 732 22 73 120 0.247 0.321 0.407

Plus, Andruw Jones, Mark Kotsay and Omar Vizquel don’t. solve. anything.

Thome’s too old.  So are they.
Thome’s too slow. They don’t get on base enough to matter.
Thome hits for a low average. So do they.
Thome’s an injury risk. He’s better conditioned than Jones, and Kotsay’s had two back surgeries in four years.

It’s not only remarkable that Guillen is choosing the clearly inferior option (with negligence on Kenny Williams’ part) to satisfy his fetish of managing a National League team in the American League.  It’s that, no matter how you look at it, any benefits are immediately nullified.

Inflexible about flexibility

The Sox made versatility a priority this offseason, re-signing Kotsay, signing Jones and Vizquel, and trading for Mark Teahen.  Those four players cover the entire diamond, and that’s great.

Unfortunately, Guillen’s on the verge of turning it into Rob Mackowiak all over again.

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SoxFest: Democracy? Inaction?

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Supposedly, we should know by today or Tuesday whether Jim Thome will return to the White Sox in 2010.  And I guess we should be thankful that it’s still a rumor, considering how strongly he wanted to manage a National League lineup in the quintessential American League park. Maybe the people will be heard after all.

I’m going to wait until Guillen retreats to Venezuela before launching full-bore into the issue.  It’s a risk of a lot of wasted words at this point.  I’ll just share one thought I had after reading the Trib story:

First, playing time earmarked for left-handed hitter Mark Kotsay and Andruw Jones would be trimmed because Guillen reiterated his commitment to rotate players into the DH role to maximize roster flexibility.

What the hell has Andruw Jones done to deserve earmarked playing time?  Over the last two years, he blimped up and burned an organization that invested heavily in him… and that’s about it.

I’d recommend Joe Cowley’s perspective and the Cheat’s analysis of the Angels comparison the interim, but I’ll have plenty to say if Thome — or an equivalent — isn’t on board.

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From the weekend:

*After following Mark Teahen’s tweets over the weekend, I almost feel bad for questioning his presence on the roster.  I hope he’s able to reverse his slide, because otherwise he’s going to be the player you hate to hate.

*J.J. Putz talked to Chuck Garfien about his elbow problems, saying the Mets never gave him a physical, even though they knew about the bone spurs. It’s amazing that this still happens, nine years after Mike Sirotka.

*Carlos Quentin’s plantar fasciitis hasn’t caused lasting damage to his knee, as was originally feared.

*My wish-I-could’ve-seen-it-moment: A fan rattling off evidence of Greg Walker’s ineffectiveness during a Q-and-A.  Since he hasn’t been fired, I can say that I’ve devoted an entire essay in White Sox Outsider 2010 to why he’s still around when others have gotten the axe.

Rock and a hard place

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Who would you rather see win the AL Central — the Minnesota Twins or the Detroit Tigers?

I’m resigned to indifference, myself.  Mainly because I can’t bring myself to root for the Twins. Lord knows that this would only fuel the fire for the Twinspired jealousy that runs rampant in the White Sox’s clubhouse and broadcast booth.

However, if Detroit wins, that’s a little additional revenue for a team that sorely needs it to work around the millstone contracts of Magglio Ordonez and Dontrelle Willis. The Twins won’t be hurting for money when Target Fields opens — unless their April slate gets snowed out.

Ultimately, either option sucks. If you have a compelling argument, I could be swayed.

And in related news, Ozzie Guillen comes to Scott Merkin’s defense, while Jack McDowell pontificates on Guillen’s precarious position.