more ozzie praise

ozzie's quickly becoming my second favorite manager (next to only charlie manuel, for whom i've grown a significant admiration over the last 4 years. say what you will about his drawl, he's a great hitting instructor, and he's turned into a hell of an in game decision maker).

gavin floyd was cruising along into the 7th inning. 4 hits, 8 strikeouts, 1 walk, 73 pitches.

the first batter of the inning was jason kubel, floyd gets ahead 1-2. he buries a curveball that is fouled off. he buries another. it's taken for a ball. 2-2. floyd goes to his fastball, and the ball is taken out of the park.

okay, floyd's got a 10 run cushion, so it's no biggie.

next batter, delmon young. floyd, again, buried him 1-2, and again, tried to finish him off with a pair of curveballs. the first one was fouled off, but the second one was ripped to LF for a double off the wall.

HR, followed by 2B. in the 7th inning. with a pitcher on the mound who is known by an entire city as being mentally weak.

but ozzie stuck with him. it took floyd just 6 pitches to get the next 3 outs, leaving his pitch count at 90, 3 starts after throwing a 115 pitch complete game, 3 hitter.

again, though, just like that night, ozzie did something that i have great respect for: he pulled floyd.


he didn't need to as floyd surely could have gone another inning, or maybe even finished the game, but with an 10 run lead, ozzie opted to save his pitcher's arm, and let him leave the game with that last inning fresh on his mind. he may have been up 10 runs, but the 2006 version of gavin floyd might have lost confidence in his fastball and lost touch with the strike zone, but this floyd got out of the jam in 6 pitches.

i might be wrong, and this might be more a function of jerry rothschild, but for now, i'm satisfied giving the credit, and the praise to ozzie guillen.

gavin floyd redux

so i was sitting by the TV, watching the phils-astros game and tracking my fantasy team's performance, when i clicked on the boxscore of the angels-whitesox game in the third inning.

the score was 0-0. gavin floyd was pitching. he had yet to allow a hit. this shouldn't really be a cause for excitement, but i was indeed excited. i was excited because twice this year he has taken no hitters into the 8th and 9th innings, and i maybe jumped a little in my excitement. i went to my local phillies message board, clicked onto the brag/bitch about your fantasy roster thread, and posted my thoughts. "Shhhh. gavin floyd through 3." i soon followed this up, "4. 52 pitches."


the very next inning, he blew up. he allowed a one out homerun, followed that up with a pair of walks seperated by a single, which loaded the bases. how did he respond to this? he beaned the next two batters, forcing in a pair of runs.


but that's not where the story ends. he went on. as i started this post, he had just gotten through the 7th inning, and that would have been enough. 7 IP, 2 H (1 HR), 3 K, 4 BB, 2 HBP, 3 ER. by definition, a quality start.


as i'm finishing this post up, he's in the 9th inning, still only allowing those 3 runs, finishing up the game for himself. he's now through 9 innings: 3 H (1 HR), 3 K, 4 BB, 2 HBP, 3 ER. 115 pitches.


all i can think of right now is thank you, ozzie guillen. i would have been satisfied with that line at 7 innings. i would have been satisfied with that line after 8 innings and 102 pitches. but guillen wasn't. this is the third time that he's pushed floyd way past the point where conventional wisdom would say he's done.


but guillen wasn't satisfied. and now, i'm thanking him for that.


but please, give him a few starts to cool off before extending him like this again.