fathom

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/ct-sp...0,388531.column These stories are becoming a lot more common lately.

Also, as someone said earlier, Pierre has got to stop bunting. He must be 2 for 20 with those this season.

1 hit in 5 innings sounds about right. Beckham also has as many errors as he does extra base hits this season!

Everyone says that Ozzie is a player's manager, and his supposed best attribute is being able to motivate his players and take the pressure off of them. I don't think even greg775 would say Ozzie is a superior in-game manager. With that said, if the players are tuning him out and/or not enjoying playing for him, then something needs to be done. Sometimes relationships just end, and it seems like it's happening here.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 27, 2010 -> 10:00 PM) Well, it's more a general rule of thumb, and secondly, it's not like they made the postseason because they were winning down the stretch. They won because of the ineptitude of the Twins. True, but you don't often see teams actually make the postseason and have such severe chemistry issues as that team did (ie: Swisher complaining about being benched in the postseason).

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ May 27, 2010 -> 09:58 PM) It did not say that player is still on the team, it said that player's agent has players on the team. gotcha, that makes it a little better.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 27, 2010 -> 09:57 PM) The most telling example of clubhouse discord to me was the fallout behind the Getz comments coupled with Dye's obvious discomfort with having Rios on the team. Something was at work behind the scenes between the veterans and the younger core. I'm looking forward to a clubhouse led by guys like Peavy/Beckham/Rios/Thornton. I think things will improve greatly.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 27, 2010 -> 09:58 PM) I think all you have to do is look at the win-loss record of a team and you'll see whether things are nasty or if they are hunky dory. When you have winning teams, you have everyone patting eachother on the back. When you underperform and don't meet expectations, you have a lot of backstabbing and infighting. Again, this happens in all walks of life, whenever a group of people are put together with a goal to achieve. They made the postseason in 2008, and the clubhouse was awful!

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 27, 2010 -> 09:50 PM) And you know what, they really aren't that much different. I think, barring a huge winning streak, this will be Ozzie's last year. I also think this might be KW's last year. He might step down and take a different position...aka the Paxson Promotion.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 27, 2010 -> 09:55 PM) He's also a young kid with a lot of growing up to do. This is the same guy that pitches completely horribly, then doesn't understand why anyone might suggest he needs to take a break from the closer's role. He's a kid that has been a drunken fool for many years of his life. Put it this way - imagine that there were always cameras and reporters around your office and writing stories and commentaries on your workplace. I can only imagine the things normal workers would say about their bosses and vice versa. It's human nature whenever you are in high-stress situations to comment and vent about it. This happens in every industry - there just aren't reporters and cameras around most workplaces to tell everyone about it. I think the Sox have covered Jenks in the past for some indiscretions, and things have soured a lot and haven't come close to reaching its peak. I hope when he leaves, everything is peaceful and we remember him for all the good.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 27, 2010 -> 09:52 PM) Hunter is one of the good guys in baseball. Infallible or not, the guy is well liked around the game and no one would put him on the list of hated players. OCab was hated in Chicago, but everywhere else he's been there haven't been a lot of negative issues. He went to Minny they were fine with him, he was loved in Anaheim, and than I have no idea how things are going with the Reds. In my best sarcastic voice, Jermaine Dye found out before a game that OC was sleeping with his mom, and that's why the chemistry was so bad. In all honesty, we all used to blame OC for the issues with Dye, but as we saw that year, maybe Dye was also being extremely immature (for example, getting mad when someone steals 3rd base with less than 2 outs).

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 27, 2010 -> 10:44 PM) The Yankees have a collection of some of the more professional players in the league on their team. I just really don't believe that Derek Jeter gives a s*** what Nick Swisher says, especially if he knows what Nick Swisher has been known to do in his free time. These guys are not naive. Yes, but when filling out a survey, what's to stop someone like Brett Gardner, who's only played for Girardi really, from putting down that of all the managers in baseball, Ozzie's the one he wouldn't want to play for (based on what Swisher said)?

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 27, 2010 -> 10:44 PM) I'm not stating that those guys would necessarily impact others minds, but Orlando Cabrera is Vladdy's best friend and Vladdy is a pretty popular player. Torri Hunter is a pretty popular guy as well and he might have heard stuff. All it takes is a few guys to have friends that are big time players and quickly it isn't just some misguided myth, it is the league perception and that is not an easy thing to run away from. And Jermaine Dye is a well well regarded player in this league. Whether legitimate or not, he left on a sour note. That said, Ozzie has always said good things about JD and I think JD genuinely likes Ozzie, but I've heard plenty of grumblings over the last year or two that a lot of people in our clubhouse pretty much tune out Ozzie. And that is not a good thing. This is a fantastic post.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 27, 2010 -> 10:42 PM) Ozzie is quite the partier himself, both now, and when he was a player. So he doesn't hold it against players if they want to go out and enjoy themselves. That would be incredibly hypocritical of him, and I think he recognizes that. What he doesn't care for, IMO anyways, is players that are out there partying it up every other night but not bringing their "A game" to the ballpark every day. It's probably true that one of Ozzie's weaknesses as a manager is his handling of young players. He much prefers his veterans, sometimes to a fault, but I can live with that. A lot of great managers have won a lot of games with the same approach. If it pisses off some burn-out prospects along the way, so be it. But when it's frustrating your prospects while they're still in your system, isn't that hurtful to the organization? There was a culture a few years ago where a certain type of prospect in our system felt disrespected by Ozzie, and it created a negative environment for their minor league team and hurt the player's perception.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 27, 2010 -> 09:38 PM) I respect your opinion Jason, but I find it difficult to believe that this particular collection of misfits having a negative opinion of Ozzie really means jack s*** to anyone worth a damn as a player. I think Ozzie's reputation amongst the latin community of players, as well as his experience managing the AL All Star team in 06' has a lot more affect on what the good players in the league think about him than what BA, BMac and Sean Tracy think of him. The thing is, if you have someone like Swisher absolutely ripping Ozzie with his Yankees teammates, what's to stop them from voting that they wouldn't want to play for Ozzie? The poll isn't what concerns me, it's the fact that a Sox beat reporter who never creates controversy is reporting that there's a handful of players that feel this way, and one or more is still on the team.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 27, 2010 -> 10:34 PM) The only player I can think of that had any kind of a case for how he was treated by Ozzie is Nick Swisher, and it's not a big secret that he was not only not producing on the field, but there were issues in the background there as well. It should come as no surprise to anyone that the three guys Ozzie really had a problem with were underperforming on the field and overexposing themselves in the Chicago nightlife scene simultaneously. Not a good combination. There's a whole group of minor leaguers that didn't just dislike Ozzie, they HATED Ozzie. We've talked about this in detail on this site. I don't buy the nightlife scene either entirely, as there's some veterans that were heavily involved in that as well that Ozzie was fine having on the squad.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 27, 2010 -> 09:29 PM) The same thing was said about him being unable to hit in the AL last year. Wasn't it you though that posted some stuff in the offseason about how opposing scouts discovered late last season how he couldn't hit fastballs, and the Dodgers threw him something like 95% inside fastballs in the postseason? Watching a few Cardinals games lately, they're not throwing him anything offspeed.

So I see we play Texas on Tuesday. I'd definitely rather see Peavy face them than have Buehrle face that team of righty mashers.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 27, 2010 -> 10:25 PM) Then, Ozzie sends Buehle to the mound Monday night, and is confused when no batter or umpire stands in against him and the stadium is empty. Ha, we don't play Monday? I would have thought for sure we'd be playing on Memorial Day.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 27, 2010 -> 09:20 PM) Just to allow me to translate: Cards offense picks up some bad Mojo = Albert Pujols only putting up a .800 OPS in May. Now really, I'd love for you to explain to me why I shouldn't expect that problem to fix itself. Cardinals got off to a hot start cause Rasmus was playing out of his mind. They need him to start making contact again. Also, don't discount the fact the NL has realized how to pitch Holliday. Fastballs inside, and you'll cut down on his productivity. They can't afford another injury to a starting pitcher...if so, let the Buehrle rumors begin.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 27, 2010 -> 09:17 PM) If Peavy goes out and bombs against the Rays, i'm going to be pissed. He needs to start backing up his talk. This is when Ozzie needs to step up and say "Tampa sucks against LHP this season. Buehrle only went 3 innings last game, so we're going to have him pitch Sunday and then you get Monday's game".

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ May 27, 2010 -> 10:14 PM) As much as I usually am rooting so hard for the the cubs to miss the postseason, this year I'm not worried. I know they don't have a chance of anything really. I would have said they'd have no chance based on how the Cards started this year, but that offense of the Cards seems to have some bad mojo. Lohse might be done for the year, and who knows how Penny returns from injury. J. Garcia has been filthy for the Cardinals so far this season in their rotation. Some of the Cubs hitters that started hot are slowing down now, but D. Lee is picking it up. Crazy that the Cubs have 11 wins between Silva and Marshall.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 27, 2010 -> 09:14 PM) Good for Jake. He hasn't lost his desire with his lousy start to the season. His attitude has been great. HE'S A GRINDER, A TRUE DIRTBAG! GMAFB, he's not getting paid a fortune to be a motivator. He's getting paid to perform, and hopefully he starts doing so.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 27, 2010 -> 06:33 PM) And most managers aren't polarizing so you than have a wide variety of guys willing to play for you. This is a pretty damning article. I guarantee one or two of those agents is whomever represents Bmac and Brian Anderson. Seriously, I don't care if it was about Phil Jackson coaching the Bulls...if you have an article saying players don't want to play for you, including current members, then that's awful! Mark Gonzales is definitely not the type of person to start a story like this in order to create controversy.

Cubs in great position to catch up to the Cardinals in the standings after this weekend, as the Cardinals offense is really slowing down.