I said it during ST and I'll say it again: If his team isn't competitive by the ASB of next year, 2011 may be Ozzie's last year in Chicago. His teams have under-performed since late 2006 (yes, the 2008 team was better than 89 wins) and Ozzie's strong points (leadership, motivation) no longer appear to be strengths. If he can't even inspire his players to focus and have good at-bats, what exactly is he bringing to the table?

 

however, to be fair, offensively this is who they were relying on to be the big producers.

 

1) A guy who's young, struggled before coming to the Sox, had a career year in 2008, and who's had injury problems.

2) An ex-All star who hit .199 in 146AB with the team last year.

3) A 34 year old 1B man who is on the decline. (Hasn't hit about his career batting average since 2006)

4) A guy in his second big league season who lit the world on fire in his rookie campaign.

 

Not to mention a DH combination of a guy who hit .222/.158/.214 in his last 3 seasons and another guy who the Red Sox were willing to give up for 1/2 a season of Brian Anderson!!!

Frankly...that is actually part of his job. He's been out-managed in game lots of times. If he can't get his team's mental state where it needs to be...then he isn't really doing anything.

The problem is, is that Ozzie is outmanaging himself. He's putting himself in the position to fail with the lineups he has going into these games.

slumping is still my feeling.

They should activate the Big Hurt to loosen up the team for a day.

 

 

They probably know he can still hit better than most on the team

The problem is, is that Ozzie is outmanaging himself. He's putting himself in the position to fail with the lineups he has going into these games.

 

 

The lineup is the easy part of managing IMO. You can't really manage unless the players you put out these produce

The lineup is the easy part of managing IMO. You can't really manage unless the players you put out these produce

The manager make the lineup that's supposed to optimizes the chances for ideal offensive production, Omar Vizquel hitting 2nd is not the work of a manager who knows what he's doing.

The manager make the lineup that's supposed to optimizes the chances for ideal offensive production, Omar Vizquel hitting 2nd is not the work of a manager who knows what he's doing.

Who should be hitting 2nd then? Beckham is hitting .143 the past week and .228 on the season.

Who should be hitting 2nd then? Beckham is hitting .143 the past week and .228 on the season.

Teahen. He gets on-base at a fantastic rate. Or if you don't like that: Alex Rios.

Teahen. He gets on-base at a fantastic rate. Or if you don't like that: Alex Rios.

Rios 9

Teahen 5

TCQ DH

PK 3

Jones 8

AJP 2

Beckham 4

Ramirez 6

Pierre 7

 

 

Rios 9

Teahen 5

TCQ DH

PK 3

Jones 8

AJP 2

Beckham 4

Ramirez 6

Pierre 7

 

I like that a lot, actually. I'd switch Aj and Beckham (even though it throws off R/L) ,but that's pretty damn solid lineup when we're working with this cast.

Rios 9

Teahen 5

TCQ DH

PK 3

Jones 8

AJP 2

Beckham 4

Ramirez 6

Pierre 7

 

 

Great, so we get guys on base, and the only people on base are the people who are actually able drive in runs.

Great, so we get guys on base, and the only people on base are the people who are actually able drive in runs.

Lead off double by Rios, Teahen works the count and get's on base, Q scores them on a gapper to center. It's not a ridiculious notion, and remember Rios is only really going to leadoff once per game. After that, it's just a manner of getting the best players the most at-bats.

Why might those guys be starting too often? It couldn't be because Beckham and Rios haven't been hitting any better than Vizquel and Kotsay, could it?

Well that's not even remotely true unless you're basing this off 1 game.

As the saying goes, "You can't polish a turd." As long as half of the lineup isn't hitting, switching it around isn't going to make much of a difference.

 

Q scores them on a gapper to center.

I don't know how you score on a shallow popup in the gap between the CF and the SS/2b.

Lead off double by Rios, Teahen works the count and get's on base, Q scores them on a gapper to center. It's not a ridiculious notion, and remember Rios is only really going to leadoff once per game. After that, it's just a manner of getting the best players the most at-bats.

 

Carlos has had plenty of chances with guys on lately, and I sure haven't seen that happen. This last week he has been awful. If we are basing things off of this season, he might be the guy hitting 9th.

Lead off double by Rios, Teahen works the count and get's on base, Q scores them on a gapper to center. It's not a ridiculious notion, and remember Rios is only really going to leadoff once per game. After that, it's just a manner of getting the best players the most at-bats.

 

He's hitting .167, I don't know how often thats gonna happen.

Carlos has had plenty of chances with guys on lately, and I sure haven't seen that happen. This last week he has been awful. If we are basing things off of this season, he might be the guy hitting 9th.

If Carlos was killing the ball, we probably wouldn't have too many threads about how much the offense was sucking, regardless of who Ozzie had hitting 2nd.

If Carlos was killing the ball, we probably wouldn't have too many threads about how much the offense was sucking, regardless of who Ozzie had hitting 2nd.

 

Exactly. Really it is the same for everyone. If you stop and think about it, we have no one that would actually qualify as being "hot" in this offense. Even Rios who seems to be the trendsetter right now is hitting .250 with one RBI for the last week.