Ozzie Guillen Is Right: Offensive Woes are Frustrating

It is that time of year on the South side of Chicago. I don’t know if I am just having deja vu, but after two months of not holding a solid lead (or any lead) in the AL Central, the Sox players are getting threatened with change by management more than the Democrats preached change while winning the 2008 election.

“Somebody has to change because if we don’t do what we’re supposed to do, I’ll take the blame because that’s my job,” Guillen said.

Ozzie Guillen was furious with his offensive production after the game one loss to the Tigers on Monday afternoon’s double dip.

Watching the White Sox inability to lay down bunts, sac fly a man home, and hit with runners in scoring position is excruciating pain for me. I can only imagine how this boils the blood of Ozzie’s spicy Latin temperament, especially if you remember the hard working, smart, aggressive player Guillen was when he played (1985-2000).

“If this was the 1980s, [none] of these guys would be in the big leagues right now, because if you hit .210-.230 and you can’t execute, I don’t think you should be out here,” Guillen said.

He’s right. This is not one of those “laugh out loud-Ozzie’s mad-here is some video and quotes” articles (which is not as bad as Jay Mariotti’s hater columns). This is to show Ozzie is right.

“When you can’t bunt, hit-and-run, squeeze and move the guy over, you better hit 40 home runs and drive in 140.”

Ozzie’s right because our offense is only capable of half of that: Home runs. That is bad news because nobody on this team is on pace for 40 dingers or pace for anything higher than 110 RBI’s, except maybe Jermaine Dye. And to win consistently you would still need more than one guy doing that.

Ozzie did not call out anyone individually but Josh Fields, and Alexei Ramirez could be put in that category.

Fields is getting less playing time with Gordon Beckham being called up and before the game Josh was openly questioning why management is so impatient with him. Fields responded with an 0-4 day and a costly error on a routine ground ball that eventually scored the Tigers’ game winning run in the 9th. Before that Chris Getz was on third after a 1-out triple and Fields grounded out to Brandon Inge at third and Getz had to hold and was left there stranded.

(Editor’s Note: Our friends over at Sox Machine have a great take on Josh Fields’ past, present, and future with the White Sox.)

Oh and Alexei? Simply put he can bunt for a hit but has to be the worst sacrifice bunting number 2 hitter in the majors right now. He missed a bunt attempt on a 1-0 pitch located in the left handed batter’s box across from him. WGN’s Hall of Fame director James Angio immediately cut to Guillen in the dugout slamming his fist and holding his head down in embarrassment.

“I wish I was home and had some fun,” Guillen said. “It’s not easy to walk to the park and play and hope you can win the game. I’m a competitor. I like to win. When you lose … I think I got spoiled in the past by winning. And I don’t like to lose.”

Things were going well last Monday entering a home stand after sweeping Greinke and the Royals in their awesome, newly renovated stadium. Today, the White Sox have already had nine straight at US Cellular in this stretch. This chart provides the cold hard numbers about the struggles to score runs.

Home Streak Stats

TEAM	R w/ HRs by Total Runs	Team LOB	RISP	Result
OAKLAND	4 of 6	7	1-6	win
OAKLAND	shutout	6	0-4	loss
OAKLAND	2 of 3	4	0-4	loss
OAKLAND	shutout	6	0-10	loss
CLEVELAND	shutout	4	0-4	loss
CLEVELAND	1 of 4	5	1-6	win
CLEVLAND	3 of 4	9	1-11	loss
DETROIT	3 of 4	8	0-6	loss
DETROIT	4 of 6	5	2-4	win
TOTALS	17-26 (65%)	54	5-55 (.090)	3-6

65 percent of your runs relying on home runs are bad news when you’re batting .090 (!!) with runners in scoring position and get shutout three times. If anything they are lucky to have three wins in nine games when you think about how good the pitching staffs of Oakland and Detroit are. On the same note, we scored 8 runs in three games against one of the worst staffs in baseball in Cleveland.

In the 80s Steve Perry said, “Don’t stop believing!”

White Sox broadcaster Hawk Harrelson has been saying, “This is a good team, playing really bad.”

Or you can go with Ozzie’s outlook, “Good teams don’t hold meetings, horse sh*t teams hold meetings. We have to have a lot of meetings right now.”

Right now, Ozzie is right but Steve Perry is always right. Then again, no Journey psych outs…please:

Tags: AL Central, Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, MLB, ozzie guillen

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