Ozzie Guillen Will Keep Bunting Thank You

Master strategist, White Sox manager and occasional English-speaker, Ozzie Guillen, recently made it clear that he is a fan of the bunt. And why shouldn't he be? It's a near automatic out (unless it's craftily deployed against the shift) but it did help Jake Taylor fictionally win the pennant for the Indians circa 1989. In the past week, the Ozzies have bunted into a triple play and killed a four-run inning by bunting into a force out. But Ozzie is steadfast in his belief in the Tao of the bunt...

"Listen, I grew up bunting," Guillen said Thursday. "My baseball game is bunting. We win a lot of games bunting. I will stay with them. The guys who can bunt, I will bunt them. We hit a lot of double-play balls because we're not that fast. That's why I will take advantage of that."

Did he just say they win a lot of games bunting? Now I know where Oney gets his delusion from. The apple doesn't fall far from the crazy plant. Luckily, I'm not a White Sox fan but I do love Ozzie because he seems mentally unstable.

The bunt, especially the sac bunt, are usually a terrible waste of an out. Bunting Adam Dunn every once in a while to beat the shift? Brilliant. But I don't have that much faith in Ozzie. Also, can we stop praising Ron Gardenhire as a great manager? If he sac bunts in the first inning of a playoff game again, I'll... Probably just blog about it. I thought I had something more threatening there for a minute.

Off Base AL Central Preview

Offbase editors Derwood Morris and MTD haven't had much luck previewing things lately-MTD incorrectly predicted Gary Discarcina would come out of retirement to help the Angels win the 2009 World Series and Derwood thought Teen Wolf 3 would be the 2010 summer blockbuster. But here are division previews anyway.

Today I preview the AL Central because my boy Mike at The Golden Sombrero doesn't respond to text messages anymore. Jerk.

Chicago (2010: 88-74)
The White Sox picked up Adam Dunn's Three True Outcomes to DH for a pretty good lineup provided Paul Konerko, Alex Rios and Carlos Quentin don't completely collapse on themselves. Somebody better knock on wood. The good news is Gordan Beckham can't possibly be as bad as he was in 2010. Unless he's been studying the Brandon Wood handbook to future unemployment. Remember when Jake Peavy was a great pitcher? No, seriously, I really want to know. Somebody look that up for me.

Minnesota (94-68)
I'm fascinated by the Twins. Justin Morneau won an MVP that he didn't deserve in 2006 but was well on his way to an MVP season last year before a concussion derailed his second half. I blame that on pee-wee hockey and Canada. Joe Nathan missed the entire season and Joe Mauer went back to not hitting for power. And then Carl Pavano pitched like he belonged in Major League Baseball and they won 94 games. My Off Base prediction for the Twins is that Tsuyoshi Nishioka will hit .387 in 2011 and then .116 in 2012 but they'll still make the playoffs thanks to Gardy's willingness to sac bunt in the first inning.

Detroit (81-81)
Miguel Cabrera had another offseason bout with alcohol and is projected to have another 35+ home run season. There's something to be said about consistency. Austin Jackson's BABIP and OBP should regress in a big way leaving Cabrera and Victor Martinez as the only Major League bats in the lineup.

Cleveland (69-93)
Quick, name a starter other than Fausto Carmona. Shin-Soo Choo is pretty much the bright spot for the Indians until Carlos Santana is fully healthy from his season ending injury in his rookie year. Grady Sizemore is still trying to get his once-bright career back on track after being derailed by injuries. Here's to hoping Grady can play at a high level again and keeps his clothes on.

Kansas City (67-95)
The Royals farm system is loaded. 2011 begins their journey toward World Series Championship contention...in 2015.

BBA AL Connie Mack Award Ballot

Baseball's award season is upon us and we finally have a vote that counts for something this year. We're proud members of the Baseball Blogger Alliance and they've been kind enough to give us ballots. The only thing the BBWAA ever gave us was the stink eye when we saw them on the subway that one time. Today we'll be unveiling our AL Connie Mack Ballot for manager of the year.

1. Terry Francona
Despite Boston missing the playoffs, I'm giving Tito the slight nod over Ron Washington because he somehow managed the Red Sox to an 89-73 record in baseball's toughest division without core players. The Sox lost their entire outfield, their MVP second baseman, Mike Lowell turned 127, Big Papi had his usual godawful start and Jonathan Papelbon melted down. Paps led the AL in blown saves with 8 and, if that wasn't enough, Daniel Bard was tied for second with 7. I don't know what Tito was doing in Boston this year and even if I found out it was voodoo, I'd still give him the credit for it.

2. Ron Washington
Washington's Rangers managed to unseat the Angels from atop the AL West. He got an MVP season out of Josh Hamilton, a big rebound year from Vlad Guerrero, a break out performance from CJ Wilson and barely had to worry about bullpen management as Neftali Feliz set the rookie saves record. All of the stars aligned perfectly for him. It also didn't hurt that Seattle was terrible, Oakland was just a .500 club and the Angels started Brandon Wood.

3. Ron Gardenhire
It infuriates me to see Gardy go do something like sac bunt in the first inning but he constantly has the Twins in the playoffs. This year he did so despite losing Justin Morneau half way through an MVP caliber season and Joe Nathan for the season. He even got 221 solid innings out of Carl Pavano without him turning back into a pumpkin. I suspect that might have been voodoo too though. Gardy won the Central by 6 games over the White Sox after it looked like it could be a close race.