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.
