Entering this month, we heard about how June would make or break the White Sox. They responded by losing their first two games in disheartening fashion, prompting Ozzie Guillen to call yet another meeting.
"We have time to recover. We still have time to gain some ground,"Guillen said. "But I can't do it alone. I'll try to help. I want to letthem know we have to attack people, we've got to pitch better. Wehaven't played the way we should be playing. And we know if we lose 100games, I will continue to say this ballclub is better than what weshow."
That phrase (emphasis mine) is one Guillen has used plenty of times throughout the year, and now that he's used it in defense of a hypothetical 100-loss team, I think I know what it means.
It's not that the Sox are a better team than their performance would lead you to believe. It's that Guillen might be maturing. Maybe. Just a little.
You may remember me writing about Chris Jaffe's evaluation of Charles Comiskey last December, which was a part of his larger book on baseball managers. Watching this season unfold reminded me of something Jaffe wrote about Guillen:
Also, when the Sox hired Guillen one anonymous baseball official said Guillen would help a good team win some more games, but cause a bad one to lose more. Guillen demonstrated the veracity of that statement in 2007, when the Sox went 72-90. He did the same things that he normally did, but with a very different effect. He sought to light a fire under his team with outrageous comments, tried building rivalries with other teams – all the button-pushing tricks that previously worked. Alas, the team did not have the talent to rise up. Guillen resorted to the same dramatic maneuver he made in 2005: holding himself accountable, he said the team should fire him if he could not make the squad win. Saying this once or twice, as in 2005, gets people’s attention. However, because the team kept losing, Guillen spent all summer repeating it. A motivational technique transformed into a cry for help. Instead of buckling down, the team flailed about. When a team lacks what it takes, sometimes the best course for a manager is to be patient and try to get the team ready for the next year. Guillen does not take it easy; patience is not his virtue. It is win or die trying, not win or die waiting.
Guillen made the same point about accountability when talking to the media, but he refrained from the dramatic. It's more like simple algebra -- he's basically saying, these players are worth [x] wins. They have won [less than x] games, and somebody besides these players is responsible for the difference. Even though I would point the finger at Kenny Williams, Guillen clearly isn't.
Now that I've written this, there's a good chance that Guillen will thrash about, throw somebody under the bus and render any claims of maturity irrelevant within the week. Regardless, I still hold out hope that he learned something from the last time the Sox went through this.
Guillen has to be aware that this team is fatally flawed, right? Sad as it may sound, Mark Teahen's finger injury pretty much cements it. He's not great; he may struggle to stay merely OK. But his absence forces Guillen to start three offensive zeroes in the infield alone for six weeks. That's not a team that's better than its record.
Yet it doesn't excuse Guillen entirely. Mark Buehrle, Jake Peavy and Gavin Floyd are killing any chance at momentum, and he really can't form a credible lineup out of the available players. Williams gave him an offense so thin, prophylactic companies are dying to know his secret.
There's one thing that's squarely on Guillen's shoulders, though, and it's a big one: He needs to get Gordon Beckham back on track before this season is over.
And his recent handling is confusing the hell out of me. In the opener against Texas, Beckham had two sharp singles and two RBI, which gave him an encouraging five hits over his last 15 at-bats.
The next night, he went hitless in three at-bats before Guillen lifted him for a player who doesn't need at-bats (Mark Kotsay). And now, Jayson Nix, who started on Thursday, might be cutting in:
"So far," Guillen said. "Nix starts hitting and has a couple hits there, then I'll play Nix. [I'm not saying] I'm going to bench [Beckham]. I'm just saying if someone performs better than him, I have no choice. I need to win some games."
Maybe Guillen knows that Nix won't hack it, as he went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. Maybe it's merely a bit of support for Nix, with an overall message to the rest of the team that he'll reward good play.
But I'm growing increasingly concerned that Beckham will lose at-bats to players who offer nothing in either the short or long terms, and I'm not sure how that will help. If he's rotating with Nix and Omar Vizquel, he may as well be in Triple-A.
That last step could be necessary, for all I know. It's going to be one bold decision in a couple of months filled with them, and it's the only one Guillen should be concerned with. He might have his hands tied in most other aspects, but that should theoretically free him up to figure out how to handle the player with the greatest impact on the team's future. If June's as bad as the first series would lead you to believe, Guillen has the last three months to get it done.
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Minor league roundup:
- Charlotte 3, Pawtucket 1 (6 innings)
- Daniel Hudson threw an abbreviated complete game, allowing two hits and two walks while striking out five over five innings.
- Dayan Viciedo went 2-for-3 with an RBI.
- Brent Morel went 1-for-3, his first Triple-A hit.
- Tyler Flowers walked and struck out in his two at-bats.
- Jordan Danks went 1-for-3 with a double and a K.
- Tennessee 5, Birmingham 2
- Brandon Hynick struck out seven over five shutout innings. He allowed three hits and two walks.
- Christian Marrero walked and struck out. over four PAs.
- C.J. Retherford went 0-for-4.
- Winston-Salem 11, Kinston 4
- Jon Gilmore went 2-for-4 with a triple, a walk and two RBI.
- Eduardo Escobar went 2-for-5 with a strikeout.
- Brandon Short hit a solo shot; Justin Greene wore a collar and a silver sombrero.
- Charles Leesman: 5 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 K.
- Greenville 5, Kannapolis 3
- Kyle Colligan singled, walked and struck out twice.
- Brady Shoemaker doubled and drove in two.
- Nick Ciolli went 0-for-3 with a walk and two K's.
- Jimmy Ballinger's struggles continue: one run on three hits and a walk over an inning.
