Dick Allen

Ozzie is playing a game he can't win. JR was quoted earlier before the season started that Ozzie should be given the team he wants, and that's sans full-time DH, with guys like Kotsay getting a lot of playing time. It blew up. Now, I believe KW and JR are just as responsible for this mistake, if not more, because they are Ozzie's superiors. But still, it definitely was Ozzie's idea, as much as he really would like some others taking blame. JR also said in June his biggest mistake was firing LaRussa. He also said its a mistake he would make again because the GM shouldn't be forced to have a manager that he didn't really want, just like a manager shouldn't be forced to have a coach he really didn't want. I believe Ozzie as already seen his "talk" the other day was just wrong and won't get him anywhere, as he has backed off and said he didn't ask for an extension only stating that he would like one. He's going to see what exactly the plan is and discuss it with his family. For Ozzie's sake, I find it quite scary someone like Oney will actually influence his decision. I'd rather have Ozzie leave at this point because I don't think his feud with KW will ever really end, and I think eventually, if it hasn't already, is going to be a burden on the team. That said, I really wish no ill will on Ozzie and hope for his sake and actually Oney's too because without Ozzie Oney is selling Streetwise, Ozzie listens to JR who has had Ozzie's best interests in mind for close to 25 years.

QUOTE (TheBigHurt @ Sep 25, 2010 -> 01:49 PM) True, but I'd rather just win my division and go to the playoffs constantly. To each his own. That doesn't make it a better job. The White Sox are a sleeping giant. They are a team that really should dominate their division and contend every season, and with the unbalanced schedule, there really is no reason why they aren't at least wild card worthy every year. If you had confidence in your abilities, the White Sox should appeal as the better job.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 25, 2010 -> 12:01 PM) Why the hell would Tony leave St. Louis for the White Sox? It makes absolutely no sense. St. Louis is a much better job. I don't know why St. Louis is much better. The White Sox spend more on players and I would think if you had a choice, the majority of people would rather spend their summer in Chicago.

I heard something last night that even if Ozzie left and LaRussa left St. Louis, the chances of him managing the White Sox are beyond slim.

Why would Denver want Noah since he's not signed for next year either? I don't see Denver as a place Joakim would like to be. I think its just more NBA rumor BS. I don't think Denver would trade for Noah unless HE agreed to an extension first, and I don't see that happening.

I always go for the Central division champ, and when they get knocked out the AL rep. If the Brewers were playing in the WS, they would be the one NL team I would root for as long as the weren't playing the White Sox. Maybe if the Twins won it all, Ozzie would be embarrassed by his actions and shut up about his contract. If Gardenhire won a WS to go along with his 6 division titles in 9 years, and he never has had more than a 2 year contract, maybe Ozzie would reflect. I doubt it. I really think Oney is his handler right now as silly as it seems. Oney did hint about a Guillen reality show about a month back. For his own sake, I hope Ozzie listens to and trusts JR right now or years from now he will regret he did not.

QUOTE (knightni @ Sep 23, 2010 -> 10:46 PM) Uh no. Ozzie's career high is 4 home runs in a season and he managed a whole 28 in his 16 year career Pierre has a high of 3 home runs and 14 in 11 years. That's hardly more pop "by far." Pierre gets a lot of crap, but he's basically had the same year this year Scotty Pods had in 2005 when he was thought of as almost God-like by some.

Cowley's source is Oney and Ozzie Jr. There's a better chance Greg will put Ozzie at fault for anything before him.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Sep 23, 2010 -> 11:28 AM) Im not too worried about falling asleep on the plane, since it will happen even if I just woke up. Planes and car rides knock me out better than NyQuil. The biggest problem that I have seen thus far is the dates in which I have been led to believe that I need to fly in on. They say "early January" and so I take that as the first week of January, which falls into that blanket of Holiday travel which triples the price of tickets. Nyquil was my trick for falling asleep. The overnight flights can be brutal when going to Europe. Suddenly its midnight on your body but 7 AM local time. Last time I flew to Paris I downed a lot of Nyquil right before boarding. I remember taxiing, and waking up over some castles in France a few minutes from touching down, very refreshed. My brother lives in Europe so I had a full slate of activities right away and was instantly acclimated.

Not really a tragedy but the best band name of all time: The Manny Trio

I am all over the place on this one though. I think Ozzie won't be back. I think he will definitely be back 5 minutes later. I now think the Sox will semi-cave and exercise the option so Ozzie will basically have a 2 year deal with no extension yet. Its a very slippery slope. Giving Ozzie anything after crying to the media is like giving in to a crying 3 year old or giving your dog some steak from the dinner table. It will mean Ozzie isn't done crying to the media. If I was the Sox, I would tell Ozzie is option would also be exercised automatically if Oney stopped on Twitter or Facebook or any of that crap. Ozzie has used the "he's an adult" crap all too much. Physically, Oney is an adult, mentally he's a child. Ozzie can get him to stop by threatening to stop the cash flow. Oney's little gig on Sunday night at the Score isn't exactly a 6 or 7 figure deal.

From the White Sox perspective, why would they give Ozzie an extension now when they control him for 2 seasons? I think KW did the smart thing as stayed above it all and quoted JR as being on his side. Obviously this is a childish fued that needs to stop one way or another. Telling Ozzie to go make a deal with another team and the Sox will discuss compensation with that team is the way I would go. Pinella netted the Mariners Randy Winn. The Marlins are always looking to dump some youngster about to get paid closer to what they are worth. Its a match made in heaven. I wonder if Oney does Ozzie's prep work for him. One day Ozzie is talking about a team that dropped 6 games in the standings in a week as a team that doesn't quit and how proud he is. The next, he's looking for an extension. If he didn't like his last extension, again, I wonder why he signed it.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 22, 2010 -> 03:30 PM) Schiphol (Amsterdam) is a major airport for overseas flights, which means you will have multiple airlines flying there from ORD or other airports stateside, and that means cheaper fares usually. I've never flown KLM, but Northwest used to fly there direct from Chicago, and I'd bet AA or UAL does too - all three of those would be fine to fly on. Just find the cheapest fare. KLM and Northwest sharecode, so it would be the same flight. I've flown to Amsterdam a few times always on KLM. They fly 747s over and are usually early. Also they don't use the US airlines policy on serving alcohol during the flight. You can suck back as many as you'd like, comp. The best bet is to use Orbitz. See what's cheapest and book through the airline website. If you don't mind making stops, yahoo travel can get you a deal as well.

Ozzie is making this a public showdown. If he really wants to stay here, I think he's making a huge mistake. As people say its a lot easier to can a manager than the players, its also easier to can a manager than a GM if you consider yours competent which I believe JR does. Hahn can't get the GM job while Ozzie is managing because Oney called Hahn names and believes you need to play the game professionally (I suppose like he did) to know the game and have the Guillen family's respect. I'm sure that's not Oney's original thought. He got it from his dad. There's enough that has gone down where one of them probably has to go. I'm betting JR sticks with KW. He knows Ozzie will probably land in Florida with a longer committment and raise. He can probably have LaRussa back. Duncan comes with LaRussa, Cooper heads to Miami.

If Jerry Manuel were managing, this collapse would have been all his fault. Its pretty much been disgusting how the Sox have played they last 14 games.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 07:36 PM) He'll be back. He's not getting that big of a raise. They didn't want to give DJ Carrasco $1 million for the same role. Of course, they had alternatives.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 07:36 PM) 2 times in 7 years which is better than any pre-Ozzie span in the past 90 years. Other than Jerry Manuel, he also had the easiest time to make the playoffs as 4 teams instead of 2 make them now. Gene Lamont won a division in 1993 played for the AL Championship and lost. In 1994 a lot of people thought that team was WS bound. I would think they would have waltzed into the playoffs at least. He was fired 28 games into the next season for Terry Bevington. A move that should get Ron Schueler permanently banned from US Cellular Field.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Sep 20, 2010 -> 04:18 PM) One of Danks or Gavin are gonna be packaged this off season I think... DH...I'd really hate spending that kind of money for somebody like Dunn. It's gonna be a wild off season I think... I think its a mistake to trade young pitching, its the fastest way back to the top of the division,but I agree they would probably at least explore what they could get for one of these guys. That may be all out the window with Floyd's injury.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 07:16 PM) Is it true there's an article in which Ozzie said that having Manny hurt this team due to not being able to have a flexible lineup? Yes.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 02:02 PM) Oney recently tweeted that the following article was "interesting." Take that as you will. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/20...htm?csp=usat.me As much as JR really likes Ozzie, I'm sure if Ozzie left, he would consider not having to hear about Oney everyday a blessing. For a while I really didn't care if he left or stayed, but I really would want him to go now. If he even twists, he really doesn't want to be here, so fine, hit the road. The White Sox will live on. Ozzie, contrary to Oney's beliefs, doesn't have a patent on championships. I just think Ozzie is like a child needing people to say "don't leave, please don't leave" so he threatens to do just that occassionally. Call his bluff, see what happens.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 06:39 PM) Buddy Bell managed some of the worst teams of all time. No one could have won s*** with the Tigers team that he inherited, same thing with the Royals teams he got. He was brought in to work with the kids and try to grow them into big leaguers at the major league level. Using his winning percentage is a terrible barometer of how good of a manager he is, or was. But in almost every case, the teams he managed were better record wise before he got there and after he left, they certainly didn't improve when he was under control. I'm in a wait and see approach with him. He has an awfully good post playing days reputation for a guy with very little in terms of results. We'll see how these recent draft picks turn out. As a manager, I wouldn't be too thrilled if he ever got the job, of course Joe Torre was fired 3 times before he became a baseball genius with the Yankees.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 12:28 PM) That's picking and choosing a game or two. I just picked 3 innings at random before I even saw the numbers, and copied them out. You are picking for the sake of picking here. From your long reliever, garbage time guy and spot starter, you are generally happy with anything under an ERA of 5, just want someone to eat innings and not be a disaster. He's far exceeded those expectations. I think the point he's making is there probably were games he would have gone at least 3 if he was more effective. He's hasn't been as good as your numbers, if he were, he'd get a different role this year, but he's been pretty good, far more valuable than what his numbers are.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 09:50 AM) Well, if nothing else, it seems the team has found a long man / spot starter for 2011 in Tony Pena. That was kind of a surprise find. He's arb eligible. Chances are he won't be back.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 05:31 PM) Hitting coach replacement = Frank Thomas? It wouldn't shock me. It would shock me. I really don't think Ozzie, if he stays, really likes him that much, and if LaRussa came back, if Walker wasn't here, McGwire is probably the guy isn't he? I think he'll come back.

Maybe the can get Rudy from the Cubs. He took a bunch of lousy hitters and made them HOFers.......wait. If Walker doesn't come back, there will not be any significant offense improvement unless better offensive players are brought in. If he leaves, I think it will also signal the end of Paulie in Chicago. That's his guy.