Ozzie Guillen Out in Chicago
Ozzie Guillen always seems to make things interesting. While the quotable manager has experienced his fair share of success in Chicago, it appears the failures of the 2011 season will lead to Ozzie’s exit from the Windy City. According to sources, the White Sox have released Guillen from his contract; allowing him to pursue other job opportunities. There are already reports that Guillen will return to the Florida Marlins in exchange for two minor leaguers. Guillen’s departure marks the end of an era in Chicago — one that included a World Series championship. For the White Sox, this move is the first of many that should highlight a very interesting off-season.
Guillen’s propensity for attracting controversy overshadows his success as a manager. While Guillen may be leaving the organization on poor terms, he will likely go down as one of the most successful managers in White Sox history. As their manager, Guillen led the White Sox to 678 wins — good for third all-time among White Sox managers. Under Guillen’s leadership, the White Sox carried a .523 winning percentage. Guillen also led the team to its first World Series championship in eighty-eight years. Of course, the stats don’t tell the entire story.
While Ozzie’s mouth has gotten him into trouble in the past; a schism with General Manager Kenny Williams seems to be the real reason for Guillen’s departure. Guillen and Williams have never had the greatest relationship, but things reportedly became irreparable earlier this season — leading some Chicago beat writers to report that Guillen and Williams haven’t spoken in over a month. With Guillen out of the picture, other members of the White Sox coaching staff should start updating their resumes.
Thankfully, Pitching Coach Don Cooper reportedly has a deal in place to remain with the organization. In his time with the White Sox, Cooper has established himself as one of the best pitching coaches in the game. His propensity for turning around young starters — often by teaching them a cutter — has earned him a strong reputation around the league. He’s also been a major part of managing the White Sox excellent bullpen the past couple of seasons. While Cooper’s name might not register with the casual fan, his loss would be arguably much more damaging for the White Sox. If Williams and Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf find a replacement that can work with Cooper, the White Sox should continue to churn out a solid pitching performances.
Under Guillen’s watch, the White Sox experienced a very solid run of success. At the same time, it was clear that Guillen’s antics had finally run their course in Chicago. Changes needed to be made, and Guillen was the most likely candidate to take the fall. If the White Sox are able to acquire something for Guillen — and retain Cooper — there’s very little downside to the move. Guillen may go down as one of the most successful managers in White Sox history, but he’s far from irreplaceable. White Sox fans should celebrate the past, but this move will be beneficial to the team’s future.
Chris is a blogger for CBSSports.com. He has also contributed to Sports on Earth, the 2013 Hard Ball Times Baseball Annual, ESPN, FanGraphs and RotoGraphs. He tries to be funny on twitter @Chris_Cwik.
I think sox fans are ecstatic that they wont be seeing Pierre at the dish 500 times anymore.
Hopeful that the era of the unnecessary bunt is over as well.
hopefully the intentional walk era too
http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2011/5/29/2195656/introducing-the-traditional-manager-index
A solid run of success?
The last time they were good was 2006.
2004 – 83-79
2005- 99-63
2006 – 90-72
2007 -72-90
2008 – 89-74
2009 – 79-83
2010 – 88-74
2011 – 78-82 *
He had good teams his 2nd and 3rd year as manager, but they’ve been spiraling downward for the last 5 years. The WhiteSox have been a .500 team in one of the weakest divisions in baseball. With a $130M payroll.
Somebody had to go, and Williams isn’t going to fire himself.
Spending 2 years living in chicago, I watched a decent amount of whitesox games, and Guillen seems similar to Scocia to me : he “manages” his team out of a lot of games.
I think saying that 2006 was the last time they were *good* is a bit of a stretch. In 2006 they had 1 more win than 2008 and 2 more than 2010.
I don’t actually think they were all that good in 2006. I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Barely above 500 in one of the weakest divisions in baseball is not “A solid run of success”. Its complete mediocrity.
If the Sox hadn’t won a WS early in Ozzie’s career, he would have been fired 3 or 4 years ago.
RC,
The division hasn’t been “weak” that entire time. Around 2005-2006 the division was actually quite good. It really only recently became relatively “weak”.
off
you’re misplacing your criticism. guillen may be the lightning rod and worthy of some blame, but as you hint, the team’s decline this season stems from williams underperformance as GM.
in 05, the White Sox had a league average payroll–70 MM. by 2010, they raised payroll up 57% to 110 MM payroll (compared to the league average of 90MM–29% growth). so, even adjusted to leaguewide increases, they’re spending more and getting fewer wins in return. guillen does not sign the checks.
look at the anti-production they received this year from dunn, rios, and pierre. 38 MM has produced -3.7 WAR (!!). while people are quick to point out guillen continuing to play (allegedly) zombie pierre, he’s actually been the least worst of those three @ -0.1 WAR.
Don’t forget Peavy. Despite what FIP says, he has been a massive waste of resources. If Kenny Williams survives this offseason White Sox fans should be livid.
Agreed… the real problem is the GM. If I were Guillen, I’d pull the “him or me” routine too.
Until you live in St. Louis, you can’t say anything about a manager “managing” his team out of games.
Fire TLR.
Can’t wait for “Guillen v. Ramirez, No Holds Barred Batting Cage Match To The Death.”
You won’t wait long to see that (expletive). I’m 47 and, right now (expletive) . . .a better shortstop than Hanley is, was, or ever will be. To watch him (expletive) tripping on his . . . skirt every (expletive) day, they can’t pay me enough money. They (expletive) can’t. I hope they try, though. (Expletive)!
Hint to Baer. The White Sox fired their World Series winning manager.
The interesting thing is that Guillen manages pitching staffs very well. He gives his young starters a long leash and doesn’t freak out if they make mistakes. I remember specific instances with Jon Garland, John Danks, and Gavin Floyd where he deliberately placed them in high-leverage situations, and it seemingly gave each one a much needed boost of confidence.
He also was pretty progressive when it came to bullpen management. He never demanded a veteran closer. If a closer wasn’t working, he just replaced him with someone else in the organization and didn’t make a big deal out of it. He also, for a time, didn’t use his best reliever (Thornton) as his closer, instead leaving him for other high-leverage situations.
But as noted by others, his offensive philosophy was abysmal. Lots of bunts (including bunting guys over like Juan Pierre who shouldn’t even need it), a deep hatred of strike outs, favoritism towards “veterans” to the point of absurdity… it goes on.
In many ways, winning it all in ’05 was terrible for Ozzie, because it seemingly convinced him (and a whole lot of other people) that they won because of Ozzieball, instead of realizing that they might have won because four of their starters had career years in the same season.
Four of their starters had career years. Three of their relievers had absolutely absurd, way out of line, amazing career years. Seriously, 180 innings of sub-2 ERA pitching from Neal Cotts, Dustin Hermanson and Cliff Politte?
Yet somehow, all anyone can talk about with regard to that team is bunting and playing small ball.
Well, to be fair, they beat their Pythagorean by 8 wins that year, too. It’s at least plausible that a low-variance offensive strategy helped a team with excellent (and, as I recall, remarkably consistent) pitching. I don’t think that means it’s likely the story of the season — the story of the 2005 White Sox begins and ends with pitching — but it might have helped.
They also hit 200 HR that year. So much for small ball.
When/if the Sox get spects from the Marlins, this instantly becomes one of KW’s best trades
Any word on Herm Schnieder? Might be as valuable as Cooper…
Schnieder has been around since the 90’s. He’s not tied to Ozzie.
meant to click + but clicked -. sorry
Good news for the Marlins: Ozzie can’t DH Juan Pierre anymore
I found Ozzie to be an interesting opponent.
It was funny when he made continuous bunts against me.
It is very difficult to bunt a special V yacker.
Oh well, with KW still there, the Sox should continue making insane decisions and me and Fisty can pummell the decision for years to come.
BTW, even I didn’t think that Fisty would be great, but I guess that’s why I’m not making the decisions around here. I think he will provide a reasonably easy challenge next year for best pitcher on the team.
Kenny’s 2005
Prior to the 2005 championship season, the White Sox signed five free agents – OF Jermaine Dye, RHP Dustin Hermanson, RHP Orlando Hernandez, Japanese INF Tadahito Iguchi and Pierzynski – and each played a key role in helping the team to the World Series title. The Sox also acquired OF Scott Podsednik and RHP Luis Vizcaino in a December 13 trade with the Brewers. In 2004, Williams signed RHP Shingo Takatsu, Japan’s all-time saves leader, who was the first Japanese player for the White Sox, while in 2003, the Sox signed free agent RHP Esteban Loaiza, who went on to win 21 games and started the 2003 All-Star Game at U.S. Cellular Field.
During his tenure, Williams has acquired 163 players in 65 trades involving the major-league roster, adding notables such as Hall-of-Fame INF Roberto Alomar (2003-04), Contreras (2004-09), Everett (2003-05), RHP Freddy Garcia (2004-06, ‘10), Griffey Jr. (2008), and DH Jim Thome (2006-09). In Williams’ 10 seasons as general manager, the Sox farm system has developed LHP Chris Sale – the first player from the 2010 draft to appear in the major leagues – and INF Gordon Beckham, The Sporting News 2009 AL Rookie of the Year, as well as 3B Joe Crede and OF Aaron Rowand, both standouts on the 2005 World Series-winning team.
…thanks?
Kenny Williams did not ruin my summer. He is an aggressive GM. He makes a lot of moves, many of which have not panned out. Of the deals that did not pan out, many seemed like good moves at the time. This year the problem was what Ozzie did with the team Kenny gave him. He seemed unable to recognize when a lineup was working, and unwilling to stick with a working lineup that did not include his highest priced players. He actually seemed to not care about winning. Ozzie and Jeffrey Loria deserve each other.
On a more positive note, if in fact the Palehose received Osvaldo Martinez in return then this is probably the first Ozzie for Ozzie trade in the history of baseball.
In fairness I should add that Kenny can be blamed for consistently putting together a team full of DHs even though the rules only allow one. The teams he has assembled–with the exception of the 2005 team– are slow, can’t get from 1st to 3rd, can’t score from 2nd, get doubled off, and field poorly. His biggest mistake in 2010/2011 was not trading Carlos Quentin.
Another Ozzie observation–not really a manager who trusts young players. It will be interesting to see how that pans out in Florida.
I put the problems this season on Ozzie Guillen, Adam Dunn, and terrible luck. KW put together a team that most people thought had a very good chance at the division. But Pierre, Dunn, and Rios all had soul-sucking starts to the season, and Ozzie kept hitting them 1st, 3rd, and 5th in the order.
Dunn was supposed to be a 4-5 WAR player, and instead he’s cost the Sox nearly 3 wins this year, and still nobody can explain it. Rios was a gamble-and-loss. Pierre was pretty good last year, but his value rests solely within stolen bases and catching the ball—two assets that have failed him for most of 2011. Beckham and Morel have had lifeless bats too, but at least they’ve provided value with their defense. The pitching this year was absolutely outstanding (Buehrle, Floyd, Danks, Jackson, Peavy, and Humber all with respectable-to-good years), but the team was just so bad in the early part of the season that the fans left and never came back, even when the Sox climbed above .500 and moved to within 3 1/2 games of the division lead. The plummeting attendance forced Williams to trade his most valuable pitcher (Jackson) for compost.
That’s been the story the past three years now: the Sox get beat up coming out of the gates, heat up in June and July, and ultimately get squashed in the second half because almost every player in that lineup slumps horribly in April and into May, and losses in the early part of the season are just as costly as they are in September. This year, it was made even worse by the fact that Ozzie kept putting his bad players (Dunn, Rios, Pierre) in critical spots in the lineup when he had alternatives. Even when Alejandro De Aza came up in July tearing the cover off the ball, Rios still beat him nearly 2-to-1 in plate appearances.
We White Sox fans were frustrated that it took so long for De Aza (late July) and Dayan Viciedo (late August) to finally show up, with so many important pieces struggling at the major league level and these guys performing so well in Charlotte. Kenny Williams is to blame for that, but I think that’s a decision that was influenced by Ozzie—he gives his veterans way too much rope, and that seems to have been a source of tension between the two. Ozzie would have flipped out if Williams had “disrespected a veteran” by cutting dead roster space like Omar Vizquel.