Ozzie Guillen is an Idiot

But you already knew that. Maybe the headline should be “Ozzie Guillen Isn’t a Good Manager.” That might seem like a crazy statement to make about the only manager to win a World Series in Chicago in the last 100 years, but ever since that magical 2005 season, Ozzie Guillen has hurt my Chicago White Sox more then he’s helped them. And I’m not talking about his media blowups, like the one he unleashed on Mike North prior to yesterday’s game, although those probably don’t help. I’m talking about his everyday decisions in running this team, from throwing together way too many starting lineups, to ruining young player’s confidence, to mismanaging his pitching staff.

Yesterday’s 6-3 loss to the Cubbies can’t be solely blamed on Guillen, after all he didn’t commit any of the White Sox four errors, but Guillen didn’t do his team any favors. It started with two outs in the seventh inning when Guillen pulled starter Mark Buehrle, who had thrown 110 pitches, and put in Mike MacDougal to face switch hitter Angel Pagan with two runners on. With the righty MacDougal pitching, Pagan batted lefty, and lined a two run triple into right field. Pagan scored on a passed ball to the next batter. Guillen would have been better served letting Buehrle, who had pitched great up to that point, finish the inning, but even if he wanted to pull him, Ozzie should have put in anyone but MacDougal. Mike McD has been bad all year, especially against lefties, who are hitting a slightly above average .417 against him this season, yet Guillen still put him in there. It appears MacDougal could be on the same track as Cliff Polite was last season, following a great year with a very bad one. Hopefully Guillen realizes this soon and quickly removes him from his post as right-handed setup man, a role that David Aardsma seems to have earned with his stellar performance thus far.

One of the bright spots in the loss was performance of backup catcher Toby Hall, who got two hits in his season debut. Hall looks like he would have been a solid acquisition for the Sox, backing up AJ Pierzynski and providing a valuable right-handed bat off the bench, but his season is already ruined because of a poor Guillen decision. Ozzie put in Hall at first base, a position he never plays, late in one of the final spring training games, and Hall ended up dislocated his right shoulder trying to make a diving stop. The injury could have, and probably should have, been season ending, but Hall fought hard to make it back to the big club so soon, a noble effort if there ever was one. There’s just one little problem: because of the injury, Hall, a catcher, couldn’t throw out a runner trying to steal the pitcher’s mound. He proved so Friday, making an atrocious throw to second base late in the game. Hall was lucky yesterday because Buehrle, who has one of the American League’s best pickoff moves, was the starting pitcher, but future base runners will surely torch Hall, making him useless as a catcher, and meaning the Sox will have to call another one up.

Yet for all the in-game mistakes Guillen has made since leading the White Sox to become World Series champions, it’s what he has done to some players off the field which has been more intolerable. Guillen has proved that getting on his bad side is a death wish for a young player; an unprofessional approach which will hurt the White Sox in the future. Guillen seemed to be the only person in Chicago who couldn’t see the improvement centerfielder Brian Anderson made in the second half of last season, but he killed his confidence by platooning him with the defensively-challenge Rob Mackowiack, and never giving Bri-Guy a puncher’s chance this season. Guillen had a similar effect on the since departed Brandon McCarthy, who he criticized for being unprofessional and parting too much. That coming from the same manager who blasted Billy Beane for not providing alcohol in the visitor’s dugout last season. McCarthy even said after he was traded that it was great to be in a new locker room that didn’t have so much negative energy. Hopefully, Guillen won’t have a similar effect on John Danks, Ryan Sweeney, and Nick Masset, three players who the White Sox seem to have hinged their future on.

This isn’t a call for Guillen to be fired, he can only accept so much blame for the offense being completely punchless and the team is still winning (and I think they’re going to win a lot of games), but Ozzie does need to turn it around if he wants to be managing this team for a long time. He doesn’t do himself any favors in the public relations department, and his recent on-field decisions certainly aren’t making up for anything.