When Ozzie Guillen took the reigns of the Miami Marlins a year ago, who’d have thunk it would’ve lasted, well, a year?Sure, we all kinda predicted the controversy, but it did seem like a match made in some glorious, technicolor heaven. But, alas, the new stadium, name and unis were all a mirage.According to reports, the Marlins have parted ways with the outspoken skipper.”After careful consideration following the disappointment of the 2012 season, we decided to dismiss Ozzie,” said Marlins Prez Larry Beinfast. ”Our hope is that a new manager, along with roster improvements, will restore a winning culture.”You know, that winning culture that has produced six seasons with a better than .500 record (the over hyped 2012 version finished a dismal 69-93) in twenty years of existence.Well, Ozzie, tonight…the Jell-O tonight is on us, brother.
Tag Archive | "Ozzie Guillen"
Ozzie Guillen’s Time As Coach of Miami Marlins Could Be Over
Posted on 05 October 2012.
Ozzie Guillen could be done in Florida as the coach for the Miami Marlins. The Palm Beach Post is reporting that owner Jeffery Loria is getting a lot of pressure from his top baseball executives to fire Guillen because they believe he has brought an unprofessional culture to the team.
Wednesday, Guillen said he expected to keep his job even though the Marlins finished in last place for the second year in a row, but it seems like that may not be the case.
One person was under the impression that Loria might be the last member of the team hierarchy supporting Guillen, even though the manager angered him with a recent comment.
Guillen was more worried about his vacation than whether he would be back as manager next season. Commenting, “The only thing I worry about, make sure that American Airlines plane is ready for Madrid on Thursday.’’
On Thursday, ESPN’s Buster Olney tweeted that the “Marlins are aggressively seeking a replacement for Ozzie Guillen….
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Marlins Owner Jeffrey Loria Is Mulling Ozzie Guillen’s Future in Miami
Posted on 05 October 2012.
As Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen leaves the country to vacation in Spain, there is much ado about his future with the club.
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Marlins Hold Off Nationals 9-7 in 10 Innings
Posted on 08 September 2012.
Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen was happy after his team’s latest win. He just wasn’t sure how to describe it.
After chasing Washington starter Stephen Strasburg early in what was likely his final home start this season, the Marlins squandered a 6-2 lead, scored three runs in the top of the 10th and survived a bases-loaded situation in the bottom of the inning to escape with a 9-7 win over the Nationals on Friday night.
”That’s first time I ever remember managing a baseball game and I don’t know when you win or know what to say,” Guillen said. ”All the suffering, all the stuff that happened, when you win the game that’s a plus. If you lose this game it’s going to be very, very hard to sleep tonight.”
Jose Reyes tripled twice and drove in three runs for the Marlins, including a two-run triple in the 10th off Tyler Clippard (2-4) that made a winner of Chad Gaudin (3-1). Washington, which has the best record in the major leagues, lost for only the second time in 10 games.
Steve Cishek got his 13th save in 17 chances by striking out pinch-hitter Roger Bernadina and Jayson Werth to end the game with the bases loaded.
”I just started rearing back and letting it go. I don’t know if the velocity was any different, but it felt like it was,” said Cishek, who earlier in the inning surrendered three consecutive hits, including an RBI-single to Michael Morse that deflected off the second-base umpire.
Strasburg matched his career low by lasting only three innings, allowing five runs.
”He always has the good stuff, but we tried to be aggressive in the strike zone with the fastball early in the game. We were able to catch him,” Reyes said.
It was the second time in two weeks the Marlins roughed up the Washington right-hander.
”Maybe we’re not trying to do too much,” Guillen said. ”We swing at strikes. We make him throw strikes the last couple of games because we’re not chasing bad pitches.”
The Nationals, wanting to protect the arm of the 24-year-old right-hander in his first full season following elbow-ligament replacement surgery on Sept. 3, 2010, have said next Wednesday’s start at the New York Mets likely will be his final appearance of the season, even though Washington is likely to see postseason baseball for the first time since the original Senators in 1933.
Strasburg, 15-6 with a 3.16 ERA, allowed two runs in the first, one in the second and two in the third, giving up six hits – including home runs to Giancarlo Stanton and Rob Brantly. He threw 67 pitches and was pinch hit for in the third.
Strasburg walked leadoff hitter Bryan Petersen, then got ahead of Reyes on an 0-2 count only to allow a single. Stanton singled down the third-base line to drive in a run, and Carlos Lee hit a sacrifice fly for a 2-0 lead.
Ryan Zimmerman tied the score with a two-run homer off Jacob Turner in the bottom half, but Brantly homered with one out in the bottom half for a 3-2 lead.
”I hit it and I knew I got under it,” Brantly said. ”As I was jogging I was praying for a little gust of wind to give it an extra foot and fortunately it went out.
Stanton hit his 31st homer in the third and Donovan Solano singled in a run for a 5-2 lead. Reyes, who had three hits, tripled in a run off Zach Duke in the fourth.
Turner, acquired with Brantly from Detroit on July 23, allowed two runs and six hits over six innings, but was on an 80-85 pitch limit.
Washington closed in the seventh on back-to-back RBI doubles by Danny Espinosa and Kurt Suzuki off Carlos Zambrano, who didn’t get an out, and a run-scoring error by second baseman Solano on pinch-hitter Steve Lombardozzi’s infield single. Morse tied the score 6-6 with an eighth-inning homer off A.J. Ramos.
Reyes’ second triple and Lee’s second sacrifice fly built a 9-6 lead in the 10th. Morse singled in a run in the bottom half off Cishek.
NOTES: In 18 career games at Nationals Park, Stanton is batting .394 with nine HR and 18 RBIs. … Zimmerman, who also tripled, extended his hitting streak to 12 games. … Miami’s Mark Buehrle faces fellow LHP Ross Detwiler on Saturday.
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Marlins Are Winning, and Winning a Lot
Posted on 12 May 2012.
MIAMI — The way the Marlins have been playing lately, they might be most susceptible to injury while celebrating.
Greg Dobbs singled in the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth Friday night to give Miami a 6-5 win over the New York Mets at Marlins Park. Then he braced himself between first and second base when a swarm of teammates joyfully ran out to mob him.
“You just feel things coming around you like you’re in the middle of a hurricane,” said Dobbs, who removed his batting helmet just in time so his “head didn’t get pounded and I have concussion syndrome.”
Celebrations are becoming quite common lately for the Marlins. They’ve won nine of their past 10 games, with four having come in their final at-bat.
It wasn’t long ago some were wondering if the Marlins might sink after expectations had been so high due to an increased payroll and moving into a spanking new stadium. They were 8-14 nearly two weeks ago when they headed out West on a nine-game trip.
But when they came back it was as if they were a new team. They swept series at San Francisco and San Diego and took two out of three at Houston.
“That’s baseball,” said Dobbs, whose team is now 17-15. “Baseball is a funny game. It will humble you and reward you and things can change in a heartbeat. It took us leaving here going on a West Coast swing all the way across the country, and now things are clicking for us.”
Whatever changed on the trip, the Marlins brought it back with them. Miami trailed 5-3 Friday entering the bottom of the eighth before plating one run then and two in the ninth.
“When things are going your way, that’s what you’re going to see,” manager Ozzie Guillen said after his Marlins got an eighth-inning double by Omar Infante that scored Jose Reyes and in the ninth got a double by Giancarlo Stanton and a run-scoring single and a stolen base by Emilio Bonifacio before Dobbs’ hit.
Actually, Guillen expects to see a lot more of that out of his team. Although they pounded out 10 hits Friday, during most their trip out West the Marlins resembled the 1906 Chicago White Sox, known as the “Hitless Wonders” for winning the World Series despite a substandard offense.
During their 8-1 trip, the Marlins won a game by scoring two runs, two when scoring three times and another two with four runs. The pitching was great but the offense often was brutal.
“We’re playing good, we’re winning games and we’re still not hitting,” Guillen said before the game. “That’s something that you say, Wow. How is this team going to look when we start hitting?”‘
The Marlins have an ERA of 3.21 to rank third in the National League while their batting average of .229 ranks 14th. At .330, Infante is the only regular hitting above .280. And Reyes is batting a meager .234, more than 100 points less than the shortstop’s NL-best .337 average last season with the Mets.
Reyes tripled to lead off Friday’s game and scored the Marlins’ first run as they took a 3-0 lead. He didn’t get another hit rest of the night to finish 1-for-4, but at least that raised his average.
“It’s not the way that I want to (start the season), but at least we’re winning,” Reyes said. “I know that I have to get on base more. But it’s going to come. It’s a long season.”
Great things were expected from Reyes this season after he signed with the Marlins as a free agent, joining decorated pitching signees Mark Buehrle and Heath Bell. Reyes was on the cover of Sports Illustrated along with Guillen in March for an article that only raised expectations even more.
All the media attention might have played a role in the Marlins getting off to a crummy start. At least that’s the word from Stanton.
“Anytime you get all this new anything, new players, new colors, new stadium, you’re not just going to be thrown under the rug from the get-go,” Stanton said. “So we got all this attention and we kind of dropped the ball a little bit in the beginning.”
Stanton said Guillen being suspended last month for five games after making a favorable remark about Fidel Castro played just a small role in the Marlins being distracted. Regardless, pitcher Aribal Sanchez said “nobody ever talks that anymore.”
So what do the Marlins talk about? Thanks to their recent hot streak, some of the conversation is about their bid to make the playoffs for the first time since they won the 2003 World Series, their second title in a seven-season span.
“The team is pretty good,” Sanchez said. “If we continue to do like this, definitely we’re going to be in the playoffs. We’ve got the talent and the players for it.”
It sure helps the way Sanchez (2-0, 2.01 ERA) is throwing. He’s one of four Miami starters with an ERA under 3.00, joining Carlos Zambrano (1-2, 1.98), Ricky Nolasco (4-0, 2.72) and Buehrle (2-4, 2.81).
But one pitcher who mostly has bombed has been Bell. After predicting before the season he would be the best closer the Marlins ever have seen, he’s blown four saves in seven chances and has an astronomical 9.28 ERA.
But Bell, who recently lost his closing job but was said by Guillen on Friday he likely soon will get it back, did record his first Miami win Friday. He pitched a scoreless top of the ninth, and the Marlins rewarded Bell (1-3) in the bottom of the frame.
“It means a lot for me to get my first win as a Marlin,” Bell said. “We went on the road and I kind of stunk and I’ve been watching these guys play great ball and pick me up.”
When Bell was struggling, his teammates didn’t get down on him. Bell said that was the case all around when the Marlins got off to their tough start.
“We didn’t play well and guys weren’t playing up to their ability, but we all started patting each other on the back,” Bell said. “We didn’t go, Why aren’t you doing this?’ We kept patting each other on the back and saying, Don’t worry, you can do it.”‘
The Marlins are continuing to pat each other on the back. The difference now is it’s often during victory celebrations.
Chris Tomasson can be reached at christomasson@hotmail.com or on Twitter @christomasson
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This Time Guillen Has Gone Too Far
Posted on 09 April 2012.
The Miami Marlins should suspend Ozzie Guillen. A one-month suspension would send a powerful message that Guillen’s thoughtless remarks on Cuban dictator Fidel Castro will not be tolerated. A one-week suspension probably is more realistic.
Yes, we live in a free country, but the Constitution protects free speech only from restriction by the state and federal governments. The Marlins, a private entity, presumably can impose the penalty of their choice on Guillen, who is a management employee, not part of the players union. Still, I’m not confident the Marlins will take action, not when their expectations for the team are so high, not when they just opened their new ballpark.
Sorry, Guillen’s offense is bigger than any of that.
I normally cringe at politically correct overreactions, particularly in response to mindless, preposterous remarks from people who are just spouting off. But when Guillen told Time magazine, “I love Fidel Castro . . . I respect Fidel Castro . . .” well, that’s about as extreme and insensitive as it gets.
Guillen apologized and the team issued a statement condemning his words, saying, “There is nothing to respect about Fidel Castro. He is a brutal dictator who caused unthinkable pain for more than 50 years. We live in a community filled with victims of his dictatorship and the people in Cuba continue to suffer today.”
The Marlins, however, merit no sympathy. In fact, they will get what they deserve if an anti-Castro, Cuban-American group boycotts and demonstrates against them until Guillen steps down, a plan that is in the works, according to NBCMiami.com.
You hire a loudmouth, you live with a loudmouth. Until, of course, you can tolerate him no more.
For the Marlins, that day likely will not come anytime soon. They are all-in on Guillen, and not simply because he just started the first year of a four-year contract.
Guillen, 48, is the centerpiece of the Marlins’ rebranding efforts in Miami, a bi-lingual Venezuelan native and attention magnet who recently made the cover of Sports Illustrated with shortstop Jose Reyes — and, ahem, even warranted Time’s attention.
Yet, here’s Guillen alienating the very community that the Marlins are desperate to embrace. If the Marlins don’t punish him now, when will they? Ask the Chicago White Sox, who allowed Guillen to get away with one indiscretion after another before finally deciding that the relationship needed to end.
The Marlins probably had pre-written apologies ready to cut and paste the day they hired Guillen, but his remarks on Castro were beyond the pale. If he wants to get drunk at the hotel bar every night, as he told CBSSports.com, that’s his business. But Castro is a flashpoint for a community in which he has lived for 12 years.
I’m not sure even what Guillen was trying to say to Time — he apparently admires Castro for surviving 60 years when “a lot of people have wanted to kill him.” Whatever his point, it’s almost unthinkable that the manager of the Miami Marlins could say such a thing, particularly when he effectively acts as the spokesman for the team.
I like Guillen. I worked with him when he was an analyst for FOX during the 2010 World Series. I’ve shared many a laugh with him, and yes, chuckled at his creative use of vulgarity and some of his inappropriate remarks.
Guillen is non-stop energy, mostly harmless. None other than Eddie Einhorn — vice-chairman of the White Sox, the team that traded Guillen to the Marlins — pulled me aside at the opening of the Marlins’ new ballpark and said quietly, “He’s a good person.”
Well, good people make mistakes, and Guillen just made the biggest of his career. Chances are the matter will blow over; everything seems to blow over in this society of limited attention spans. But the Marlins shouldn’t allow it to blow over. No, the Marlins should take a stand.
Suspend Guillen.
Not because a protest group wants him out.
Because it’s the right thing to do.
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Marlins’ Hanley Ramirez Ready to Move to Third Base
Posted on 03 January 2012.
Hanley Ramirez has been the shortstop for the Miami Marlins since joining the club in 2006. He’s gone to three All-Star Games, won two Silver Slugger awards, and was the Rookie of the Year. But the team added the reigning National League batting champ, shortstop Jose Reyes, this offseason and isn’t asking him to move positions.
The Miami Herald reports that, after initially not being very happy about the situation, Ramirez is now ready to move over to third base.
“I’ve spoken with [manager] Ozzie Guillen, and what we want is to win with the Marlins,” Ramirez told the Associated Press in Spanish while in the Dominican Republic, according to the Herald. “We’ll see what happens with the position change. If it’s at third base, fine. Where they put me to win, I’ll do it.”
Ramirez, long the poster boy for the Marlins, is recovering from shoulder surgery this offseason and will have some adjusting to do as his team’s roster has noticeably changed with the additions of Reyes, closer Heath Bell, and pitcher Mark Buehrle as the team revamped itself before moving into a new ballpark next season.
The Herald notes that Ramirez is saying that he is 95 percent recovered from the surgery.
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No Trade Request from Hanley Ramirez
Posted on 08 December 2011.
A rumor circulated Tuesday that the Miami Marlins’ new third baseman, Hanley Ramirez, asked to be traded after not being the slightest bit happy about the idea of moving over to third base in order to make room for Jose Reyes.
The Palm Beach Post reports that no trade request has been made by Ramirez, though all indications are that he remains upset about the move.
Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen, who spent his career playing short, said that he understands why Ramirez is upset, but thinks Ramirez will be happy about it in due time. “I don’t blame him,” Guillen said, the Post reports. “He has a right to be upset. He’s a human being. He was the shortstop. Meanwhile, I think the guy we are bringing in is going to help him to get better.”
Since Reyes joined the team this past weekend, a source tells the Post that Ramirez has “reiterated to the Marlins his desire to stay at shortstop.” Sorry, Hanley.
Even though the Marlins are asking Ramirez to change his position, Guillen is saying that he’s the team’s leader: “This ballclub is Hanley’s club,” Guillen said, according to the Post. “Whoever we bring aboard is to help him, and the ballclub, obviously, but this is still Hanley Ramirez’s club.”
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