Sox' Guillen looks to future, wondering
Ozzie Guillen is prepared to manage the White Sox in 2012.
He also is prepared to be fired.
We are just more than two weeks away from the Sox' official off-season, and it promises to be interesting.
Does chairman Jerry Reinsdorf still like Ozzie?
Does Jerry like general manager Kenny Williams?
Does Jerry like one better than the other?
Is Jerry going to have a new manager and GM next year?
We'll eventually learn all of the answers, but let's stick with Ozzie for now.
Nearing the end of his eighth — and by far most disappointing — season in the White Sox' dugout, Guillen is under contract for 2012.
Before Tuesday night's game against the Detroit Tigers at U.S. Cellular Field, Guillen deflected blame from Adam Dunn, Alex Rios, Gordon Beckham and Jake Peavy and put it on himself.
“I've never been afraid to blame myself because I'm the one who puts those guys out there,” Guillen said.
Reinsdorf is the one who does the management hiring and firing, and he is as loyal as they come.
But according to Williams, Reinsdorf also is “grumpy” after spending a franchise record $128 million on payroll this season for a team that underachieved from the start of spring training.
“I don't care either way,” Guillen said of coming back next year or being fired. “I will appreciate it either way. A lot of people, they don't know how much I love Jerry. And Jerry loves me.
“But there is one thing in the middle of both, and that's a business. And we have to respect that in each other.
“I can talk to Jerry anytime as a friend. If Jerry doesn't think I'm the right guy to run this ballclub, he won't have any problem with me at all.”
In other words, Guillen will make a quiet departure, which would be a challenge given his love of chatter.
“A lot of people think that if Ozzie leaves here he will have a press conference on Michigan Avenue and blast the White Sox,” Guillen said. “Nah. That won't do me any good.
“Why? First of all, I live in Chicago. I want to walk the streets of Chicago with my head up and not regret saying something I shouldn't say. I'll just leave it like that.”
As for this season, Guillen said he doesn't deserve a letter grade.
“If you're not winning you can't rate,” Guillen said. “I don't think I did a good job. I let a lot of people down, including myself. I let myself down and I let my players down.
“I did. You know why I say that? Because I had a lot of confidence and I expect a lot better things from myself than I did. A lot of things.
“I expected my ballclub to play better, and it hurts. I feel for the White Sox. Maybe if I go someplace else, I just have a job and I will go through my job.
“But with the White Sox, it's different. I grew up in this organization; I feel for this organization. I coached and played somewhere else. If I managed somewhere else I have the responsibility to do it and will go with the best intentions, the best way and I will win somewhere. But this is a different thing.
“This is a different feeling. I might not say this because I might kill Jerry's heart. Sometimes I stop and say, ‘Nah, I won't say that,' even if I do say a lot of things.
“But I love this organization. It's always going to be in my heart. Will it always be on my mind? We'll see.”
Guillen always takes the blame when things go wrong, but what really happened to the Sox this season?
Guillen said the problems ran much deeper than Dunn, Rios, Beckham and Peavy collectively flopping.
“If you're going to point at people, how many wins do our starters have?” Guillen said. “Fifteen? We didn't even make it to 15? Who's the most? (Gavin) Floyd? Early with the bullpen. We cannot point any fingers.
“Yeah, it seems like if those guys hit we'd do better. How about men on second and third base with less than two outs and we don't score?
“To me, I think that's more important than those four guys people want to point fingers at. I don't think we executed well when we had to. We never had a big, big inning. We'd have bases loaded with one out and have an infield groundball and score 1, that's it.
“We don't have those types of games like, wow. A lot of people talk about we pitched well. Yeah, we pitched good. Because our offense was so bad our pitching looked very good.
“It's difficult to point fingers here. I want people to point them at me.”
sgregor@dailyherald.com