http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/white-sox/post/_/id/486/guillen-sox-should-be-embarrassed
Guillen: Sox should be embarrassed
By Bruce Levine
April 23, 2010
CHICAGO -- After a second straight blowout loss -- this time a 10-2 drubbing by the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday -- Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said he hopes his team is embarrassed, because he is.
"I have to sit there and watch. You see the way they play! It's pretty bad!," said Guillen, whose team lost 12-0 to the Rays on Wednesday. "Are they embarrassed about the way they play? I hope [so] because I am. It's 40-something degrees, and people can't pay to come out and watch this game and they are freezing their [butts] off watching this game. They should be embarrassed to the fans.
"If they don't want to be here they can talk to [general manager] Kenny [Williams] or [assistant GM] Rick [Hahn]. If they don't think they can win here, that's easy. My door is open. Let me know pretty soon before it's too late. We might do something about it."
Jake Peavy gave up seven earned runs and walked seven in 4 1/3 innings against the Rays on Thursday night. Meanwhile, the White Sox hitters continued to slump, managing six hits off starter James Shields and two Tampa Bay relievers.
Guillen has played good cop, bad cop, and even tried the no-cop-at-all approach in dealing with his unproductive 5-11 team. At this point the always irascible Guillen has just about run out of positive spins.
"There's a lot of way you can talk to your players," Guillen said. "You can pep talk them. You can do a lot of things. But if they don't believe that we believe in them they are wrong. It's one thing if the manager believes he has a good ballclub. [It's another] if the players believe they are good. I don't think they believe they are good."
The White Sox had Shields on the ropes in the first inning before allowing him to pitch out of a bases-loaded jam while giving up just one run. That combined with Peavy's erratic start had Guillen wondering if he has the right players after just 16 games.
"To me it's getting old, very old," Guillen said. "I know it's my job but to me I'm getting tired, mentally tired of watching the same baseball game day in and day out. How many games have we played? Sixteen games? I feel we have already gone through the [expletive] All-Star break. That's how I feel about this ballclub right now."
Although Peavy's numbers were awful, the former Cy Young Award winner believes he has turned the corner on a velocity issue that had him wondering for awhile if he had lost his fastball. On Thursday, Peavy consistently hit 93-94 mph on the radar gun. The problem was he had no command of what he called after the game his good stuff.
Bruce Levine covers baseball for ESPNChicago.com.
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Guillen: Sox should be embarrassed
By Bruce Levine
April 23, 2010
CHICAGO -- After a second straight blowout loss -- this time a 10-2 drubbing by the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday -- Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said he hopes his team is embarrassed, because he is.
"I have to sit there and watch. You see the way they play! It's pretty bad!," said Guillen, whose team lost 12-0 to the Rays on Wednesday. "Are they embarrassed about the way they play? I hope [so] because I am. It's 40-something degrees, and people can't pay to come out and watch this game and they are freezing their [butts] off watching this game. They should be embarrassed to the fans.
"If they don't want to be here they can talk to [general manager] Kenny [Williams] or [assistant GM] Rick [Hahn]. If they don't think they can win here, that's easy. My door is open. Let me know pretty soon before it's too late. We might do something about it."
Jake Peavy gave up seven earned runs and walked seven in 4 1/3 innings against the Rays on Thursday night. Meanwhile, the White Sox hitters continued to slump, managing six hits off starter James Shields and two Tampa Bay relievers.
Guillen has played good cop, bad cop, and even tried the no-cop-at-all approach in dealing with his unproductive 5-11 team. At this point the always irascible Guillen has just about run out of positive spins.
"There's a lot of way you can talk to your players," Guillen said. "You can pep talk them. You can do a lot of things. But if they don't believe that we believe in them they are wrong. It's one thing if the manager believes he has a good ballclub. [It's another] if the players believe they are good. I don't think they believe they are good."
The White Sox had Shields on the ropes in the first inning before allowing him to pitch out of a bases-loaded jam while giving up just one run. That combined with Peavy's erratic start had Guillen wondering if he has the right players after just 16 games.
"To me it's getting old, very old," Guillen said. "I know it's my job but to me I'm getting tired, mentally tired of watching the same baseball game day in and day out. How many games have we played? Sixteen games? I feel we have already gone through the [expletive] All-Star break. That's how I feel about this ballclub right now."
Although Peavy's numbers were awful, the former Cy Young Award winner believes he has turned the corner on a velocity issue that had him wondering for awhile if he had lost his fastball. On Thursday, Peavy consistently hit 93-94 mph on the radar gun. The problem was he had no command of what he called after the game his good stuff.
Bruce Levine covers baseball for ESPNChicago.com.
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Trey Hillman became the first manager to get fired this season when the Kansas City Royals let him go Thursday after a final win.
Former Milwaukee Brewers manager Ned Yost, who had joined the Royals' front office in January, immediately took over the team.
The Royals made the move after beating the Cleveland Indians 6-4, a win that left Kansas City at 12-23 and last in the AL Central.
The 47-year-old Hillman was in his third season with the Royals after managing for five years in Japan. Kansas City went 75-87 in 2008 but then dropped into a last-place tie in 2009 at 65-97.
Yost managed the Brewers from 2003-08, when he was fired late in the season with the team in the playoff race. The Royals hired him last winter as a special adviser for baseball operations.
Former Milwaukee Brewers manager Ned Yost, who had joined the Royals' front office in January, immediately took over the team.
The Royals made the move after beating the Cleveland Indians 6-4, a win that left Kansas City at 12-23 and last in the AL Central.
The 47-year-old Hillman was in his third season with the Royals after managing for five years in Japan. Kansas City went 75-87 in 2008 but then dropped into a last-place tie in 2009 at 65-97.
Yost managed the Brewers from 2003-08, when he was fired late in the season with the team in the playoff race. The Royals hired him last winter as a special adviser for baseball operations.
Hillman was a dead man walking as soon as they hired Yost in the offseason, but this was well over-due though. Trey sucked with handling the starters (mostly Meche's comeback and the 130 pitch counts), the bullpen (6 out saves, rarely any days off), and his propensity for bunting in so many scoring situations when no other manager would even think about it. Hopefully, he'll go back to succeeding in the Asian leagues with his crazy style.
