Archive for Ozzie Guillen

You Can Put It On The … Bored.

Posted in White Sox News with tags , , , , , , , , on May 24, 2010 by OneRunGame

Crying Wolf? Is that the scheme the White Sox are running? They look great one day to make believers out of all of us, only to fall apart the next day and then prompt us all to say “I told you so!”. 

Everytime the Sox put together a solid 9 innings, I want to believe they’re about to get hot and start a streak and make us all eat our words. It’s a sad situation when you go 1-for-4 and it actually raises your average, and you consider that a good day. Guys like Quentin, Ramirez, AJ and Beckham would applaud a 1-for-4 performance. I know it’s not always about your batting average, it’s what you do with how you perform in that particular game is what’s important. 

At a time in Chicago where there are other top sports stories brewing that has put baseball on the back-burner, White Sox and Cubs baseball isn’t exactly dominating the sports pages. I mean, how often do we get to cheer for the Blackhawks in late May? It’s been since 1992 that we did it last. Ask anyone in Chicago, even Ozzie Guillen or Lou Piniella what’s a bigger story and they’ll have to tell you the Blackhawks. Looking at the way the White Sox are playing this year, no one would have guessed it. However, not as many are paying attention to how bad they are playing because of the diversion of the Hawks being in the Stanley Cup Finals. That gives the Sox at least another week to turn things around. 
Sitting at 18-25 and if the Sox can get back to .500 or darn near close to it by the time the NHL season comes to close … fans might not be panicking as much they would if we didn’t have hockey to watch. Don’t get me wrong, I’m stoked that the Hawks are in the Finals and are the favorites – they’re an exciting team. I’m just thrown off because it’s my body-clock, it’s almost June and I love baseball. 
Inter-League play has started and so far the Sox are 2-1. Not bad. They must win series from now on to have a chance to compete. Mark Buehrle snapped a personal five game losing streak to shut down the Marlins Friday night for 8 innings and earn the win for the Sox. Good game, they showed promise and we felt better. Saturday, it was Gavin Floyd’s turn to look sharp and earn his second victory of the season, as the Sox won 4-1 with timely hitting, good pitching and good defense. A familiar recipe for winning, I’d say. Then along came Sunday. 25,000 plus fans, temperatures pushing 90+ with humidity, a two game win streak with a chance to sweep, who can blame fans for wanting to witness that. Big game on the line, it’s hot – who better than to have “Sweaty” Freddy Garcia on the mound. I’ll spare you the details. 
Dropping the game 13-0 to the Marlins was a disaster. It was hot. Wasn’t that supposed to mean that the bats would come alive? So many cold games in April and early May, lethargic offense, sub-par pitching … weren’t we led to “un-officially” believe that warm weather would spruce our guys into top form like it has in years past? Even though the other team has to play in the same weather. Well, we were wrong. The Marlins obviously had no problems hitting and pitching in the park with heat and some wind. 
The Sox missed a golden opportunity to pick up a game on the Twins while sitting 7.5 games back and in third place. Put it this way Sox fans, it could and almost should be a lot worse. A few Sox players names are starting to crop up in trade rumors as June approaches. Unless they put together a win streak or at least a consistent style of productive play …. you may see a few guys shipped out of town to dump salary. That would almost signal the beginning to the end of a promising season. 
A roster that I was impressed with back in Spring Training is now starting to look like the deli counter at a grocery store. The Sox are stuck in a rut playing the same old style of struggle-ball. It gets kind of boring after a while watching them leave tons of guys on base while the other team hits the ball like it’s sitting on a tee. 
It’s hot outside, let’s match the temperature with intensity. 

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Swing & Fits

Posted in White Sox News with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 20, 2010 by OneRunGame

Spring training has come and gone folks. How’s your team doing after the first ten or eleven games? Good, bad? Off to a hot, unexpected start or is your team sort of, ‘getting by’? 

Sure it’s odd seeing teams like Toronto atop the American League East in the early going. Seeing the long-running Western Division champs in the A.L., The Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim in the cellar. Is it too early to panic? Well, it depends. Allow me to repeat. “Spring training has come and gone”. The spring was supposed to be when our teams worked out their kinks, shook off their winter dust and got ready for the season. Does your team look like they’re ready for the 162 game season? 
Mathematically yes, it is too early to panic. But if you know your team like I do, you are panicking just a little. 
For the past few seasons, the White Sox have gotten off to slow starts. By slow, I mean – turtles people. Players like Alexei Ramirez from Cuba, who has never played a baseball game in cold weather in his life until he arrived in Chicago – is renowned for getting off to a slow start. Does he heat up? You bet your you-know-what he does. He can certainly carry a team when he warms up. But if the White Sox continue to creep along, as they are currently five games behind the Central leading Twins, they’ll need a crane to carry them along. 
All the talk on radio, in the papers and on the post-game analysis on TV – most, if not all of the analysts are saying something to the effect of “relax, it’s too early to panic … there are still 145 more games to go”. Well, not really. 
Realistically, there are only 30-50 games remaining this season. Give or take a series or two. If you continue to fall behind a team like the Twins, and to not take the Tigers lightly, the Twins are showing no signs of early season struggles. Blame the chilly weather all you want … the other team on the field is cold too. 
So far, the White Sox pitching staff has lived up to their expectations. A couple of bad starts by Jake Peavy, a rough start for Gavin Floyd in Cleveland, sure … that’ll happen. The bullpen has been outstanding in the early going. So that’s not the problem. Could it be the offense? YES! That’s it. 
The White Sox brought in third-baseman Mark Teahen via a trade with Kansas City to help with forming a more athletic club both defensively and offensively. Teahen was a bonafide Sox-Killer in K.C. He hits a lot of doubles, hits to all areas of the field. OK, I get it. They traded away a couple of minor-league pitchers for speedy lead-off man, Juan Pierre. Pierre had an excellent season for the Dodgers in 2009 but became expendable because of Manny Ramirez. He has also been a consistent hitter and base-stealer his entire career. OK, I get it – we have a true-blue lead-off guy who can get on base, steal bases, wreak havoc for starting pitching. BUT – he has to get on base. Something he hasn’t been doing thus far. 
Manager Ozzie Guillen has made a pledge to form a team not relying so much on the long-ball. Something the White Sox have been all about for years and years. They won the 2005 World Series with pitching, defense, timely hitting and yes, many home runs. The 2010 club lacks the likes of sluggers Jim Thome and Jermaine Dye’s steady, run-producing power. G.M. Kenny Williams has been quoted as saying he’s “uncomfortable” with Guillen’s “designated hitter-by-committee” philosophy. (Mark Kotsay, Andruw Jones, Juan Pierre, etc). 
With versatile players like Pierre, Beckham, Teahen and Alex Rios (acquired off waivers in 2009 from Toronto) the White Sox were supposed to manufacture runs this year with speed and “small-ball” execution. Sure they have some power still in a healthy Carlos Quentin, Paul Konerko and we’ll see how much Andruw Jones has left in the tank. But can you teach an old dog, new tricks? Does Paul Konerko – an icon on the south side of Chicago, really want to change his game in his early-to-mid 30’s and in a contract year? Does he want to buy into the “I shouldn’t be swinging for the fences” mentality? I think not. Again – contract year. Konerko is NOT a selfish player. However, he is not a dumb one either. 
Too much has been made of the “2010 Chicago White Sox” team philosophy and thus, too much pressure has been put on the players. If you tell a kid not to do something, they’re more inclined to want to try it. If they’re down 7-0 late in a game, and if I’m a player, I’m not thinking bunt & run! I’m thinking “I gotta do something here”. Enter the Home Run. 
There comes a time when you have to consider another means, but not fully abandon your philosophy. Kenny Williams let Guillen have his way this time around with personnel. I don’t expect Kenny to wait this one out too long. With the Minnesota Twins’ line-up stacked from top to bottom with talent, power and skilled veterans, it takes the pressure off their slightly above-average pitching corp. 
It’s mid-April and the White Sox are already five games behind them. Sure, there are 16 games remaining between the two, but from where I see it – the Sox had better get with the program. I’ll enjoy nothing more than seeing the Sox over-take the Twins late in the year being the underdog. 

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Strong Finish Or Too Little, Too Late?

Posted in White Sox News with tags , , , , , , , , , , on October 26, 2009 by OneRunGame

Spoilers. Who has time for them? Who wants to even play them? Even worse, who wants to be in the position to BE the spoiler? Every year, in every division … some team always plays the role of the spoiler.

The White Sox played the role at the end of the season. In the last week of the season the White Sox trailed the Tigers and Twins. No hope of post-season and no hope of even finishing the season at .500. The Tigers had a three game lead with ONLY four games left….that’s almost a shoe-in right there. When the White Sox came to town for the final weekend of games – the Tigers needed only to win one game to lock up the division.

Thanks to Jake Peavy, the Sox took the first game. Oh and the Twins won their game, gaining ground and making everyone in Detroit nibble away at their fingernails like the Twins were doing in the standings.

Well, the story goes on that the Sox made life in Detroit very hard for the Tigers and the Twins tied them, won the one-game playoff – winning the Central Division and advancing to the playoffs only to get knocked out by the now, American League Champion Yankees. Don’t think for a second the Tigers will forget about the havoc the White Sox created for them when the 2010 campaign starts. Revenge.

Defeating Detroit the final weekend series was just a last ditch effort for the Sox to make some sense of a dismal season where expectations were high, but not met. A season that featured probably the biggest achievement in all of sports in 2009 – Mark Buerhle’s perfect game. For the Sox to beat Detroit, which led to Minnesota winning the division, did in fact give the White Sox some purpose. After all, it was still a division game and I applaud them for going out and competing against the team they trailed for much of the season.

While the 2010 season looks promising, on paper – led by arguably the strongest rotation in the Majors – the ’09 season looms on … with the World Series match-up now set. (See World Series post on here). Look at it this way Sox fans, you still have plenty of reasons to watch the World Series, you get hear Ozzie still talk 2009 baseball, as he was hired on as a pre & post game analyst. This should be interesting.

Watching former Sox players such as Nick Swisher make it to the World Series w/ the Yankees – a trade Kenny Williams highly believed was good for the White Sox, you still hate to see it. (hence, Kyle Orton 6-0 w/ Denver, Cedric Benson torching the Bears for a career high yardage – you get the picture) See how Juan Uribe single-handedly carried the Giants in September until they fell a few games short of playoff glory.

It seems to be a Chicago trait about former players …’ Leave Chicago – Become a Stud ‘. How’s that for a Monday headline for you? That’s an argument for a later time. And how Jim Thome fell a little short in his playoff attempt at a World Series try w/ the Dodgers, although he only got a couple of at-bats.

Sure, the White Sox finished strong and played the ‘Spoiler’ but it still doesn’t hide the fact that they fell short, well .. very short of their potential and goal … defending AL Central Champs.

Let me answer my own question … it was too little, too late.

 

 

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Another ‘Blown’ Opportunity

Posted in White Sox News with tags , , , , on September 18, 2009 by OneRunGame

” A blown save (abbreviated BS or B) is charged to a pitcher who enters a game in a situation which permits him to earn a save (a save situation or save opportunity), but who instead allows the tying run to score. Note that if the tying run was scored by a runner who was already on base when the new pitcher entered the game, that new pitcher will be charged with a blown save even though the run will not be charged to the new pitcher, but rather to the pitcher who allowed that runner to reach base.” – compliments of Wikipedia.org

There are times throughout a season where a blown save may feel like it was the 20th blown save of the season. Even when you might exaggerate that number ever so slightly. Thursday night in Seattle, felt like one of those blown saves.

Bobby Jenks has come through for the White Sox a lot in the past … coming up with the big save when the game is close. After all, that is part of a closer’s job. There have been many games where the Sox have added a late run or two taking the game out of a save situation … thus leading Jenks to take a seat in the bullpen.

There’s nothing more disheartening to not only the team but to the fans as well, than a blown save. There have been closers for the Sox and other teams in baseball I think that should have had “B. Save” on the backs of their jerseys instead of their actual names. A blown save, especially with two outs in the bottom of the 9th, up 3-2 – after a stellar pitching performance that deserved a win. Even more crushing when the team you’re chasing, [Detroit], loses again for the seventh time in the last ten games, giving you a golden opportunity to gain ground. Not long ago the Sox were on the giving end of blowing a save in Minnesota, sending Joe Nathan to the bench to hang his face in his glove. How long have we been hoping for that to happen?

Forever.

As much as I think the Sox are out of it, they’re not. Not yet at least. They still have six games with Detroit. (3 in CHI, 3 in DET to close the season). Not to mention, they need A LOT of help. Both in-house and elsewhere in the American League Central.

You can argue some blown saves could have been avoided and might be a blown call by coaching staff judgment. I mean, John Danks was pitching a gem and exited after only 97 pitches in 8 innings. 97 pitches in a game the Sox needed to win, especially when earlier in the day the Tigers had lost again to the Royals. Couldn’t Ozzie just let Danks lead the 9th and perhaps see what happens? Up 3-1, and the first sign of trouble, go to the bullpen?

Hey, I guess we’ll never know.

Instead, Jenks serves up two solo HRs, ties the game and we head into the 14th inning. As Ozzie said after Thursday night’s game, “It was 2 1/2 hours of satisfaction and then 2 1/2 hours of [bad] baseball.”

Kinda sums up the season, doesn’t it?

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