TDA Bullpen - Our Writers' Blog

Tuesday, November 04, 2003

Modern Management
I'm going to push the limits of "fair use" and quote from an article from the Chicago Tribune, 2/29/2000:

"LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla -- Ozzie Guillen wanted Frank Thomas to become more than just the best right-handed hitter in the major leagues. He and others on the White Sox tried to make him understand the importance of also being a complete player and a caring teammate."

"'He's not the kind of guy to be around young talent,' said Guillen,... Guillen continued, 'To be "the man" you have to move runners over; run the bases hard. He's not going to hit a ground ball and run down the line hard to show a kid how it's done. That's not Frank.'"

"'Frank let Ozzie and Robin do the dirty jobs, and he took at all the credit,' Guillen said."


While the thrust of the article, that Frank Thomas isn't a good role model for younger players, may or may not be true, it's the examples that Guillen uses that disturb me. He goes for the classics - moving the runners over, running the bases hard. Somebody ought to send Ozzie a copy of Moneyball. He's got one of the best hitters in baseball on his roster, and it would be a tragedy if he used the wrong elements to judge him. Hustle is great, but I'll take OBP any day over hustle.

Betweeen Guillen and Baker, statheads in Chicago might be in for some very long seasons.

posted by David 11:40 AM

Monday, November 03, 2003

The Other Ozzie
No, not that Ozzie. Ozzie Guillen was just named the manager of the White Sox. Yikes. As a player he had no strike zone judgement - he never took a walk:

Year	Games	Walks
1985	150	12
1986	159	12
1987	149	22
1988	156	25
1989	155	15
1990	160	26
1991	154	11
1992	12	1
1993	134	10
1994	100	14
1995	122	13
1996	150	10
1997	142	22
1998	95	25
1999	92	15
2000	63	6

It's true that he didn't have many strikeouts, but this is because he rarely was at the plate long enough to see strike three. He put the ball into play as soon as possible. "I didn't strike out much" isn't worth a lot when you have a lifetime OBP of .287.

On the other hand, Ozzie has great people skills, a lot of goodwill with the local media, and is a native Spanish speaker. When fellow countryman Gus Polidor was murdered, Guillen stepped in and took care of Polidor's family.

Tony Phillips knew the value of a walk, milked pitchers for extra pitches because he knew they became less effective at higher pitch counts, and was the posterboy for patient hitting. On the other hand, he got into some crazy fights with both players and fans, and liked to hit the crack pipe now and again. I'd much rather have him at the plate, but not running the show. But I do wish that the White Sox would hire somebody with Tony Phillips's knowledge to act as bench coach.

Deadwood on the Internet
According to this article on Cnn.com, "deadwood" websites are becoming a real problem. Two-thirds of blogs in a recent survey haven't been updated in over two months, and there are thousands of websites out there that haven't been updated in years.

And I can understand why. This takes a fair amount of work, even for only a change or two a day. It's one thing if it is a site like The Diamond Angle where a thousand people or more might drop by on any given day, but for low readership sites, sometimes it is just not worth the trouble.

posted by David 11:45 AM