Ozzie vs. Kenny

No matter how busy or uninspired by the day's news I am, I am going to try to satiate the masses' thirst for my writing and opinions by posting at least once every day from now on. Racking my brain this afternoon, I thought this story would work.

After the Sox lost 4-3 on a 10th inning walk-off home run by Gabe Gross (which led to them losing 3 of 4 to the surging Tampa Bay Rays), manager Ozzie Guillen got a little worked up and said this:

"I expect [general manager] Kenny [Williams] to do something Tuesday. Because if we don't do anything Tuesday, there's [going to be] a lot of change in the lineup. That's all I'm going to say about the offense," said Guillen, whose comments were spiced with an occasional expletive.

My first thought was that this is just stupid. They have a veteran team, and the main guys who are no performing were also their projected best hitters: Jim Thome, Nick Swisher, and Paul Konerko. What else would change? Who would replace these three?

The rest of the mine-up is at least acceptable, and the whole pitching staff is doing a good job, so they aren't going anywhere, either.

What I didn't think about was that Williams would be mad at Ozzie for this tirade, but it makes sense since Ozzie just crapped all over the team he built:

"It's just not a good idea to throw your boss under the bus, especially when that boss has had your back as much as I have had his," Williams wrote. "I expect this team, if the leadership remains positive and the players stick together and continue to play hard, it will be a fun summer.

"The offense will begin to produce when collectively they say the hell with all the theories, stay loose, pick the pitch you want to hit and hit it hard. It will be nice to see them lighten up and have some fun."

That's basically right. This team is set to win now, and there is no organizational depth to replace the thumpers in the lineup.What exactly would Ozzie propose he do? I am sure he's just trying to motivate them, but since these guys have all been around a while, I wonder if even that would work.

Another common Ozzie move, though, is to blow up in the media to take the attention off his team and put it on him. The problem with that here is that the media is focusing on both his team and him.