Poor old Ozzie…

OK, I know it’s nothing to do with the Yankees, but in a Peter Griffin “Grinds my Gears” type rant, I have to go off on one about Ozzie Guillen.

I have never before, in any sport, come across anyone else with such a poor attitude to their team, their opponents, and the sport in general. It strikes me that any successes he, the White Sox, or anyone on the team have can be attributed to Ozzie, to Ozzie’s decisions, to Ozzie’s pep-talks or alterations. Contrast this with whenever anything goes wrong to the team, the manager, or the players, which ALWAYS seem to be a case of someone being out to get poor old Ozzie.

All of these exchanges about Phil Cuzzi this week must surely be embarassing for White Sox fans (much in the same way as many Boss or Boss Jr rants are for Yankee fans), but no more so than seeing Ozzie shouting at and belittling his players when they don’t perform, or generally making a fool of himself before a large audience. Still, I guess it seems to have taken the attention from him generally not being a very good manager, which I’m sure will come to the fore in the near future as the post 2005 World Series honeymoon comes to an end.

I wonder if any GM’s will be attracted by his behaviour, and be tempted to offer him a position after his days with the White Sox…. Then again, if nobody offers him anything, it’ll be nothing to do with him, it’ll be a big conspiracy to keep poor old Ozzie out of the limelight that he craves…

All of this t-shirt nonsense

What a laugh all this t-shirt, curse business is proving to be. After the initial story broke, the inevitable fan reaction of wanting to dig up the stadium to find it was quoted all over the place. The team officials, however, have scored a big own goal by releasing word that they were certain that such a thing couldn’t have happened, and that it was all a hoax. They really should have known that there was likely to be some form of evidence of the burial to come out, as today’s NY Post has shown.

Still, not to worry, we’ve had counter-spells put on the stadium to try and reverse any cursing effect….. We can all sleep safely now!….

Then again, I always thought that it was a team’s talent, ability and performance that decided whether they won, rather than the inane ramblings of a rogue construction worker from the Bronx who decides it’s smart to waste $70 (minimum) on a jersey just to encase it in concrete, then claim that he has only cursed the team for 30 years. Surely if this guy was bestowed with such power, he’d be doing better for himself than working construction!?

C.M. Wang – CY Young?

Well last night certainly answered some questions about Wang’s ability to beat the big teams, especially in light of his awful record at Fenway. As both of us here at HO have said all winter, the fact that he didn’t even receive a single CY Young vote last year is nothing short of criminal. To have put together the numbers he did, which match up with any of the best stats put up in the game, yet not receive a single vote just shows how unappreciated his talent is by those outwith the Yankees.

Since 2006, he now leads the Majors in wins, and as for this season, he accounts for half of the team’s wins himself! His 41-13 mark since the start of 2006 is 5 wins ahead of Santana (including 1 in the NL), 9 ahead of Sabathia, and 4 ahead of Beckett. Not to mention the fact that he has averaged over 200 innings a season, a statistic you can’t measure the value of for the Yankees given the youngsters in the pitching staff, it all adds up to establishing strong credentials for his role as the ace of any rotation. Surely if he was to pick up more K’s rather than groundouts this would be a widely held opinion around baseball…

In light of the fact that he didn’t pick up his third win until late May last year, yet still managed to pick up 19, should he keep up his current form, then surely this year could be the year he gets the recognition he deserves. Now that Santana is slumming it in the NL, Beckett has injury issues, and Sabathia seems to be doing his best Andruw Jones contract year impression, while Wang just seems to go along completely unflappable picking up regular W’s, should he put up numbers similar to the last two years, I can’t see how people could fail to recognise his abilities.

Still, as with the team overall this year, I can’t say that being so underrated bothers me. I can only hope that other teams underestimate the team this year in the same way as most baseball writers seem to have done.