"Ozzieball?"

[Fotop]

As I've been saying for most of the season, "Ozzieball" (defined as doing the little things to generate runs) may not be the type of play best suited for this ballclub. Today I stumbled across a couple things while reading Baseball Prospectus that I found interesting. For the sake of agrument, I'm going to focus simply on the sacrifice aspect of "Ozzieball" and disregard the whole agressive baserunning aspect.

 

To begin, I'd like to point out this little tidbit I found on BP:

Largest improvements in team slugging, 2003-2004:

 

 

Tigers:    +62

Dodgers: +60

Cubs:      +40

White Sox: +32

Reds:      +27

As we all can probably remember we were a pretty decent hitting ballclub last year. By looking at this we're in the top five in the most improved offenses (slugging wise) with the Cubs being 3rd on the list . Combine that with the fact that we play in a great hitter's park and you've got one potent offense. But this was common knowledge to everyone already right? I mean it's pretty simple to see that we're hitting the ball well this year.

 

However we continue to bunt too much. Take a look at this:

 

If one were to guess, one would assume that positions 1-16 in the greatest number of team sacs in the majors would be held down by National League teams while positions 17-30 would be in the hands of American League teams. Given the DH situation, this would stand to reason, even with the presence of interleague games on the schedule. Does it actually shake out like that?

 

Almost. There are a few overlap teams. They are:

 

White Sox: Tied for 12th with the Reds and Phillies

Angels: Tied for 15th with the Mets

Padres: Tied for 19th with the Indians and Mariners

 

It is good for a National League team to be in the overlap, bad for the American. The White Sox have the best team slugging average in baseball and don't need to be screwing around with trading outs for single bases. Somebody needs to whisper that into the ear of manager Ozzie Guillen--or maybe scream it right into his face. The Mets are nearly an overlap team, too. Combine that with having the best stolen base percentage in the majors, and they're not chewing up very many baserunners voluntarily.

What the above is basically stating as that we're most comparable to the Reds and Phillies in regards to the amount of times we sacrifice. As it also states, it's really not all that good for an American League team to be comparable to a National League team due to the fact that the AL has the DH. So basically we're sacrificing the same amount of times as two teams that have a PITCHER in their lineup. This simply does not compute to me, especially when you see something like the slugging increase.

 

To me, there's a simply solution to this problem, STOP BUNTING W/NO OUTS EARLY IN THE GAME. It just doesn't make any sense to bunt in the bottom of the first, EVER. At least to me it doesn't.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love the attitude and energy Ozzie brings to the club, however forcing a philosophy on a team better suited to just hit could cost us precious games in the long run. Combine that with his recent pitching decisions, and the "games we should have won but lost" start to pile up. I haven't checked in awhile, but the Sox are near the top in run differential...let's act like it and not play as "safe" as we do.

 

Just my two cents. Take it for what it's worth.

[Gene Honda Civic]

Two very questionable situations in todays game....

 

In the third, Olivo lays down an unsucessful sacrifice attempt. (I'm sure we probably lead that category too, though I doubt anyone actually keeps track of it.) Why give up the out in that situation? 5 Fricken' runs scored after that play.

 

In the 8th. Carlos & Jose double to tie the game. Paulie grounts to the right side to advance Jose. Perfect. Runner on third less than 1 out. Bottom of the 8th inning. Warm up Shingo, and lay down the suicide squeeze. Game over. Nope. There is not a more perfect situation for the suicide sqeeze to be called. You have the best(smartest) baserunner in baseball on third, as evidenced by his ability to get to second ahead of the throw in the second when Paulie hits a GB w/ the bases loaded(even though he was out). Instead Ozzies got Rowand up there hacking. First pitch line-out. Crede's up behind him. He hasn't had a clutch hit since the Manuel era.

 

Ozzie doesn't have the balls to make that call. And that's too bad, because that's what I thought Ozzieball was going to be. Not some national league Bulls*** when you have arguably the most potent offense in baseball.

[DBAHO]

In the 8th. Carlos & Jose double to tie the game.  Paulie grounts to the right side to advance Jose. Perfect. Runner on third less than 1 out. Bottom of the 8th inning. Warm up Shingo, and lay down the suicide squeeze. Game over. Nope. There is not a more perfect situation for the suicide sqeeze to be called. You have the best(smartest) baserunner in baseball on third, as evidenced by his ability to get to second ahead of the throw in the second when Paulie hits a GB w/ the bases loaded(even though he was out).  Instead Ozzies got Rowand up there hacking. First pitch line-out. Crede's up behind him.  He hasn't had a clutch hit since the Manuel era.

Cleveland would not have been suspecting the suicide squeeze either I can tell ya, especially since the way every1 had been hitting tonight.

[aboz56]

Ozzieball is exactly what it sounds like, pure and utter bulls***.

[Reddy]

i was a fan early in the season, but at this point when i've seen what our offense can do... why limit it??? Ozzie should take a hint, you're right.

[BrandoFan]

Two very questionable situations in todays game....

 

In the third, Olivo lays down an unsucessful sacrifice attempt. (I'm sure we probably lead that category too, though I doubt anyone actually keeps track of it.)  Why give up the out in that situation?  5 Fricken' runs scored after that play.

 

In the 8th. Carlos & Jose double to tie the game.  Paulie grounts to the right side to advance Jose. Perfect. Runner on third less than 1 out. Bottom of the 8th inning. Warm up Shingo, and lay down the suicide squeeze. Game over. Nope. There is not a more perfect situation for the suicide sqeeze to be called. You have the best(smartest) baserunner in baseball on third, as evidenced by his ability to get to second ahead of the throw in the second when Paulie hits a GB w/ the bases loaded(even though he was out).  Instead Ozzies got Rowand up there hacking. First pitch line-out. Crede's up behind him.  He hasn't had a clutch hit since the Manuel era.

 

Ozzie doesn't have the balls to make that call. And that's too bad, because that's what I thought Ozzieball was going to be. Not some national league Bulls*** when you have arguably the most potent offense in baseball.

No way you can lay this on Rowand - he's been hitting EVERYTHING lately, and his last two outs in this game were SMOKED.

 

Paulie had a terrible game, your ire should be focused on him and Loaiza.

[Gene Honda Civic]

No way you can lay this on Rowand - he's been hitting EVERYTHING lately, and his last two outs in this game were SMOKED.

 

Paulie had a terrible game, your ire should be focused on him and Loaiza.

That was in no way an indictment of Rowand. He has been swinging the stick well. And I'm ALWAYS glad to see him instead of timo. I don't really have IRE towards anyone. We won the game. Pauly & E-Lo will come through big time some other time. I am questioning what everyone is calling ozzieball. Giving away outs, and not being aggressive (be it on the basepaths, or with ballsy calls like the suicide) is not what I thought we signed on for with Ozzie.

 

The suicide squeeze isn't the type of play where you take the bat out of a guys hand. He's either going to get a hit, or the baserunners going to be out. There's no other outcome. I wavered in my own thinging for about half a second, but the suicide was the right call there.

 

Oh and Jose was awsome today, even without the HR at the end.

[IlliniKrush]

He's not blaming anything on Rowand, he's disagreeing with Ozzie's managing there

 

I wanted the squeeze as well, you do it either first pitch or ahead in the count. Hindsight is 20/20, sure, but i said squeeze as Rowand stepped to the plate. No guarantee that would have worked, but i wanted the move in that situation.

[YASNY]

I totally agree with this:

 

It is good for a National League team to be in the overlap, bad for the American. The White Sox have the best team slugging average in baseball and don't need to be screwing around with trading outs for single bases. Somebody needs to whisper that into the ear of manager Ozzie Guillen--or maybe scream it right into his face.

 

There are times when a sac bunt is in order, but I think they are few and far between. You can still be aggresive and move runners, but do it without giving up outs.

 

As far as Ozzie not squeezing with Rowand at the plate, I would give him the benefit of the doubt on that simply because ARow has been hitting the ball on the screws lately. He had a hot hitter in the box, let him hit.

[Texsox]

Last season we complained that JM sat back and waited for the big inning, and it wasn't coming.

 

Maybe OZ has let the pendulum swing too far the other way. We should not go al;l the way back to the JM days.

[RibbieRubarb]

I agree with Ozzie on this, with the way Aaron was swinging the ball let him drive it.

 

A Sac Fly could work as well as a Squeeze. But Aaron hit it Hard and it was caught. Oh well.

 

I don't mind Ozzie playing for a bigger inning, considering the way the Indians were hitting.

[Texsox]

Oz has to also look at how the team is playing. With most of the team going 0 fer Monday, maybe a little small ball helps.

[RibbieRubarb]

But they weren't going "0 fer" yesterday...that's my point.

 

When Carlos led off the inning with a double, Smallball dictates Jose should have bunted him over. But Ozze let the hot-hitting Jose swing away and he doubled in Carlos. Paulie, who can't bunt, hit the ball to right side of infield to advance Jose.

 

One Out

 

The Hot Hitting Aaron Rowand comes up and Ozzie lets him Swing Away to drive the ball. This will accomplish a Sac Fly or another hit to keep the inning going with less than two outs.

 

Ozzie was looking to get guys on base, because Cleveland was hittign the s*** out of the ball and one run may not have been enough.

But Aaron smoked a ball that Ben Broussard made a great play on.

 

I think Ozzie was playing it very smart!

 

EDIT: By the way, Aaron Rowand is leading the Majors in hitting this month with at a .455 clip (since May 23rd) and Jose leads all Shortstops with 13 hrs.

 

That's why they aren't bunting.

[BrandoFan]

I don't fault Ozzie there for not bunting:

 

1. It was a high scoring game, so 1 run might not have been enough. Ozzie was proven right - Shingo had AWFUL top of the 9th, giving up 3 consecutive liners right at people - Tribesmen could have just as easily scored 2-3 runs that inning if they got a little luckier.

 

2. This is not a good bunting team, there is no guarantee the suicide works - Indians were throwing some serious leather all game long, and with the way Riske was mowing through our line-up, I am sure it would have been botched somehow.

 

3. Aaron was hitting EVERYTHING hard lately. We're not talking about cold-as-hell Willie here. Taking the bat out of his hands wouldn't have been wise. Again, Ozzie was proven right - Aaron smoked the ball, but right at Brusard.

 

 

Bunting is not always a good recourse. Remember the 17-14 game in Canada? At some point early in the game both team tried to lay down a bunt, or at least faked the intent. In retrospect, if the bunt had been layed down, even if a successful one, it would have robbed a team of an out - and considering Expos had an inning where they scored 7 runs with 2 outs, who knows how the complexion of the game would have been changed.....And then you got Willie bunting in the 8th and taking the Sox out of a BIG inning as well.

 

As far as Ozzieball goes - it really IS an attitude.

 

But the SMALL-ball aspect of it is extremely overrated:

 

-- Sox are a TERRIBLE hit-n-run team (already resulted in numerous baserunners getting hung out to dry). At some point, you have to realize it's counter-productive.

-- Sox baserunners are simply not good - most lack the speed and/or the smarts to steal bases at a high-%......Look at Uribe - 7 steals with 4 CS, which is bad enough, but he also has 2 pick-offs, so in reality he has 6 CS in 13 attempts. Terrible. Willie Harris stopped running period - he's getting to0 scared of being picked off now, so his leads aren't good but what's worse, he can't read the pitcher like Beltran, Roberts, A-Rod and Podsednik can. Valentin has a bad leg and hasn't been much of a threat since 2001 injury. Olivo is a mediocre base-stealer - Carlos and Magglio are bad this year as well. Rowand's 7 for 8, but it should be 6 for 8 because one "SB" was a botched pick-off run-down in Toronto. I guess he and Willie are the only ones you can run with on consistent basis.

-- Bunting skillz or lack thereof has already been mentioned.

 

I do like that this team is aggressive at scoring from 1st on doubles and 2nd on singles despite having rather average team speed and agility. I like that they make the other team pay for its errors. I also like that they hustle on grounders and force-out plays - Valentin beat another one last night. But at the same time I EXPECT that kind of effort from a play-off caliber team, so I am not sure if I want to give credit for something they should be doing ANYWAY.

[Gene Honda Civic]

Just wanted to note

 

I saw Anahiem lay down a Suicide with nobody out, runners on the corners, while up 4 runs early in the game last night. It was of sucessful of course.

 

Mike Scioscia is awsome

[Pastime]

Before anyone confuses "Ozzieball" with "Florida Marlins baseball," remember that Florida has Pierre/Castillo at the top of the lineup. (Slap hitters with great speed). After that, their lineup is much like ours. Slow, plodding power hitters who run station-to-station.

 

If we could find a 1-2 combo like Florida's, then we could basically do the same thing they do. Let the tablesetters do their thing, and then let the boppers drive them in.

 

"Ozzieball" would involve us having a team of contact hitters with speed, but not a lot of pop.

[beck72]

Before anyone confuses "Ozzieball" with "Florida Marlins baseball," remember that Florida has Pierre/Castillo at the top of the lineup.  (Slap hitters with great speed).  After that, their lineup is much like ours.  Slow, plodding power hitters who run station-to-station.

 

If we could find a 1-2 combo like Florida's, then we could basically do the same thing they do.  Let the tablesetters do their thing, and then let the boppers drive them in. 

 

"Ozzieball" would involve us having a team of contact hitters with speed, but not a lot of pop.

I agree. I love Willie and Uribe, yet they are bound to drop off in the stretch run [Definitely at least one if not both]. If the Sox get a top of the order hitter who can steal bases to get into scoring position and get on base for the power guys, watch out.

 

Ozzieball seems intent on keeping the opposing team [and the manager] on their toes, putting pressure on the defense and pitching. The sox have done it at times. But more needs to be done. Harris is the only base stealing threat, and hasn't run as much as Ozzie wants him to.