Ozzie Guillen, on the White Sox’s struggles offensively:
If this was the 1980s, [none] of these guys would be in the big leagues right now because if you hit .210-.230 and you can’t execute, I don’t think you should be out here. When you can’t bunt, hit-and-run, squeeze and move the guy over, you better hit 40 home runs and drive in 140. Is the clubhouse closed? We should open it and let them [answer] why they’re so horse [expletive]. I talked to them. One thing about it: Good teams win games. Bad teams have meetings. Well, I think we’re to the point of having a lot of meetings. That’s all I can say.
Guillen could definitely “bunt, hit-and-run, squeeze, and move the guy over” during his 16-year playing career, ranking among the league’s top 10 in sacrifices eight times, so he’s probably immune from his own rant about guys with poor batting averages not belonging in the big leagues.
Still, the whole thing is pretty amusing considering that Guillen hit .264/.287/.338 for his career and was basically one of the worst hitters in baseball for two decades. In fact, from 1985-2000 he had the worst on-base percentage and third-worst OPS of any player in baseball with at least 3,500 plate appearances.
I’m a big Ozzie fan and managers certainly don’t need to have been great players themselves to criticize their team, but talking about what would happen to horrible hitters in the 1980s probably isn’t his strongest suit.
