Sox' Guillen irritated by team's critics

If you are feeling vindicated now that struggling center fielder Alex Rios is back on the bench and incapable of harming the White Sox, manager Ozzie Guillen sent a message before Thursday night's 7-2 loss to the New York Yankees.

“Rios is going to be playing when I play him,” Guillen said. “I'm not going to bench Rios because of what people think or what the people want.

“If the people think I don't make the right lineup, they're wrong because I'm not going to make the lineup that people want. I'm going to make the lineup I think is the best lineup out there.”

Guillen obviously is irritated by the Sox' current slide, and the critics have been out in force.

While often saying he blocks out what is being said and written, Guillen took on all comers during the latest negative wave — especially those who believe Rios should have been out of the lineup for good when Alejandro De Aza was called up from Class AAA Charlotte on July 27.

“Let me explain to the idiots out there, the geniuses,” Guillen said. “They say I (didn't) bench Rios, but the only player I benched because he didn't hustle, it was Rios, for two days, OK?

“Second, when we brought up De Aza, the next three pitchers were lefties and then P.K. (Paul Konerko) got hurt.

“Tell these people out there, if they think they know baseball more than me, then send me the lineup that was better without Rios in the lineup.”

Considering Rios is batting .175 with no home runs and 3 RBI since the all-star break — and has an overall hitting line of .207/.252/.294 — it can be argued the White Sox would be better off with only eight players on the field.

“Is Rios not playing well?” Guillen said. “Of course he's not. He's brutal everywhere.”

Guillen, from Venezuela, apparently heard one critic say Guillen has been playing Rios because he's from Puerto Rico.

“You think because Rios is Latino, I'm playing him?” Guillen said. “You know how many Latino players I got rid of here? Thank you. Every time people talk about it, I didn't read it, people talk about that, it's a bunch of (crud).”

Guillen also took plenty of heat for not defending relief pitcher Brian Bruney after he was ejected from Wednesday night's 18-7 loss to the Yankees for arguing a close call at first base.

In his postgame news conference, Guillen laughed about the play.

“Everybody was mad because I laughed,” Guillen said. “Well, you want me to cry? I told the umpire (Marvin Hudson) I don't see him kick (Bruney) out of the game, because I didn't see it.

“And people said, ‘See, he doesn't even care about it.' No, it doesn't mean I don't care. Not too many people saw it when he got thrown out.”

Finally, Guillen again came to the aid of beleaguered hitting coach Greg Walker, and he blamed Rios and Adam Dunn for their season-long slumps.

“You know what, those guys have to make the adjustment, not the hitting coach,” Guillen said. “This is not a teaching (league). You're going to teach, that's why they have instructional league and winter league, to learn.

“This is the big leagues. This is about winning; this is not about teaching.”

Rios did take the blame for his all-around struggles.

“I've been trying to obviously get out of this very bad slump that I've been in the whole season,” Rios said. “It gets to your head. It's mentally and physically draining.

“It gets to a point where you almost lose your confidence in yourself, but I haven't gotten to that point yet because I know I can do a good job on the field.”

sgregor@dailyherald.com