August 31st, 2011. The White Sox still have about 30 games left on the schedule, and despite being 5 games behind the Detroit Tigers they were still very much in the AL Central race, thanks to a couple of head-to-head series with Detroit still on the docket. After Detroit won their game against the Royals earlier in the day, the Sox looked to keep pace by beating the Twins. With the tying run coming to the plate in the 9th inning, Ozzie Guillen pinch hit for Brent Lillibridge with Adam Dunn, and essentially made it clear that he had no intention, or desire to continue managing for the White Sox anymore.
It probably sounds like I'm being overly dramatic about one managerial decision, or that I'm a tunnel visioned fan who's looking for a person or moment to blame for a disappointing White Sox season (which is partially true). But this one decision, for a number of reasons, made it clear that Ozzie Guillen was no longer managing with the same competitive savvy he displayed in 2005. All good things must come to an end, and with everything that culminated into this one pinch hit decision, it became evident that it was time for Ozzie Guillen and the White Sox to part ways.
I don't want to sound like I'm dumping on Ozzie too much, because I still think he's a fantastic manager who's baseball knowledge and intuition is often overlooked because of his outlandish sound bytes. Here's why I still believe Ozzie is one of the top managers in the game today:
1) Ozzie is honest and blunt. He will let his players know how he feels and what their roles are, good or bad. It's important for direct communication to be open between players and coaches, and despite the fact that Ozzie's Spanglish is sometimes hard to understand, Ozzie made sure his players knew what was expected of them. It seems simple enough, but baseball players are creatures of habit who need to understand their roles, and how they're supposed to be utilized, and with Ozzie there was never any doubt.
2) Ozzie manages a pitching staff better than just about any manager in the game. His starting pitchers respect him because he always gives them a shot to earn a W. And Ozzie doesn't manage according to the save statistic. He knows who his best bullpen arms are, and he brings them in for the high leverage situations regardless of whether or not it will earn his "closer" a save. This was even evident as recently as this past year, when Ozzie did a masterful job of matching up his bullpen aces (Sale and Santos) in a manner that gave his team the best chance to win, instead of trying to pile up a bunch of saves for one player. Many managers are afraid to think outside the box and manage outside of the save rule.
3) Ozzie normally does a great job of keeping his teams loose and relaxed. He likes to have fun with the players, fans, and really anyone in the same room with him; he's kind of a fun loving guy. He also alleviated a lot of pressure from the 2005 World Championship team with his seemingly random rants and colorful sound bytes. Sure, Ozzie genuinely does like to complain about the god-awful facilities at Wrigley Field, or the double-standard that MLB presents by offering Japanese players interpreters, but not providing the same service for Latino players. But Ozzie's news-worthy rants served the purpose of taking the attention off of his players too. With a team that didn't feature a lot of vocal players (think Konerko, Dye, etc.) Ozzie assumed the role of the voice of the clubhouse so that his players didn't have to, and a lot of Ozzie's outbursts happened right around a losing streak to take the attention off of his teams recent failures. People assume Guillen is just a talkative guy who likes to randomly run his mouth, but the man is intelligent and knows what he's doing.
So where did Ozzie's relationship with the White Sox go wrong? Well, before we go back to August 31st, lets go back one month earlier, on July 30th. At this point in the season the Sox were barely staying afloat in the AL Central due in part to some issues in the back end of the bullpen in April (Matt Thorton couldn't close out games, and Juan Pierre forgot how to catch routine fly balls), but the biggest thing holding the White Sox back were historically bad performances from Alex Rios and Adam Dunn. The Sox were having a hard time overcoming getting absolutely nothing from two players who make over $10 million annually and were expected to be major run producers. Normally the front office (ahem...Kenny Williams) would be to blame for allocating such huge resources to players who not only don't produce, but come close to breaking MLB records of futility (Dunn would've had the lowest BA in history, but he ended up not getting enough ABs to qualify).
Kenny Williams saw that those two gaping holes in his lineup were killing the Sox chances at the post-season, and came out and made this statement on July 30th:
“We’re here to put the best players out there, who are going to fight the hardest, bust their tail the hardest, regardless of contract size, regardless of their history in the game, just play to win from here on out. That wasn’t a direct message at him, he is obviously the one most affected right now, but there may be others at any given time.”
The most important part of the statement is when Kenny says "regardless of contract size." This is essentially freeing Ozzie from the handcuffs of feeling like he has to start Dunn and Rios every day because they're making so much money. It's rare for front office types to admit their mistakes, swallow their pride and bench $25 million in salary, but Kenny did it in an attempt to save the White Sox season and to allow Ozzie to play Alejandro De Aza (freshly called up from AAA Charlotte) over Rios, and also to allow other hotter bats (like Lillibridge) to get some time in at DH while Dunn rides the bench.
It turns out that despite Dunn and Rios' hitting woes, the Sox had other solid options, as De Aza hit a home run in his first game with the southsiders, and provided an immediate spark with a quick bat, electric base running, and a sparkling glove, clearly out-performing Rios in every aspect of the game. Regardless of solid numbers in Charlotte against lefties and righties, Ozzie insisted on platooning De Aza, starting him only against northpaws while Rios continued to start in CF, play miserable defense, and hit weak ground balls to the shortstop. In addition to De Aza, Dayan Viciedo spent the first 5 months of the 2011 season absolutely mashing AAA pitching in Charlotte, and yet when he got called up to the majors he still found himself on the bench far too often while Adam Dunn continued to get at bats after 4 months of drawing standing ovations from an anxious US Cellular crowd for not striking out. This apathetic approach Ozzie had to setting his lineups was not something Sox fans were used to, Ozzie always preaches accountability, and was never shy about trying different lineups in the past to try to jump start the team. For some reason, Ozzie seemed resigned to watch the team continue to fail as opposed to trying to be proactive with his lineups to try to breathe some life into his team.
The last straw came on August 31st. Brent Lillibridge came to the plate against Joe Nathan, representing the tying run. Sox fans felt good, not only because Lillibridge had the hottest bat in the lineup and had homered earlier that afternoon, but also because "the Crusher" had homered off of Nathan in his only career at-bat against him less than a month earlier. Instead of allowing Brent to try to work his magic once again, Ozzie called for the discombobulated lefty, big Adam Dunn. I'm sure nobody was more surprised at the decision than Dunn. He gave Sox fans hope by working a 3-1 count, then, as he had done 156 times previously that season, he swung through two belt high fastballs right down the middle, and grabbed some bench. As if Dunn's confidence wasn't shaken enough, Ozzie brought him out once again in front of a huge crowd in a must win game, setting up what was certain failure based on what had happened that year. Kenny gave Ozzie the leeway to bench Dunn if he wanted, and Ozzie chose to further expose Dunn's miserable season in the most important moment of a must win game, essentially holding up a middle finger to Kenny Williams and Sox fans everywhere.
What was frustrating to me as a White Sox fan (and a fan of Ozzie) is that I know Guillen is capable of being a very creative, innovative manager, and his competitive spirit has never allowed him to get lazy and stick with something that didn't work. For example, in 2005 Ozzie realized that he had issues with the back end of the bullpen when Shingo Takatsu and Dustin Hermanson didn't provide the consistency the Sox needed. The 2005 version of Ozzie wasn't afraid to call up an unproven rookie in Bobby Jenks, and when Jenks proved that he could produce, Ozzie trusted him to get the most important outs of the 2005 regular season, and eventually the final out securing the White Sox first World Series victory in 85 years. It was a combination of competitiveness, intuition, and sheer guts that allowed Ozzie to make bold moves like that, and unfortunately that version of Ozzie did not exist in 2011. There were options and opportunities for Guillen to try different lineups and bench certain players while giving more playing time to players like De Aza who earned the playing time with their production, and Ozzie did nothing. Pinch hitting Dunn for Lillibridge is the most glaring example of Ozzie not having the balls to do the unconventional thing that gave his team the best chance to win.
I still maintain that Ozzie is a great manager, and I have no doubt Miami will rejuvenate him, and baseball is a better sport with Guillen's fiery spirit and fantastic sound bytes around. And of course I will always appreciate the major role he played in bringing Chicago the only World Series victory any of us have seen in our lifetimes. But the relationship between Ozzie had grown stale, and sadly it's time to move on.
