White Sox Dumping Vazquez is Positive Move
You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
I guess Javy Vazquez has a theme song. He's a positive guy, happy to get out of the "negative" atmosphere that is Chicago White Sox baseball.
Of course, Vazquez is talking about the many meetings he must have had with White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen where Ozzie told him that he needed to be accountable for his performance. You know, things like "Javy, we pay you a lot of money and you need to go out and earn it, not pitch like a rookie."
Negative or just plain honest? Where I come from, we have a term for guys like Javy. It's "soft". It's hard to imagine a pitcher with the potential he has being worried about someone trying to fire him up. It's also hard to imagine a pitcher with his potential going 0-4 with a 13.23 ERA in his last four starts. These were starts that were critical to his team getting to the playoffs. So excuse Ozzie if he had a less than rosy outlook around Vazquez during that time. "it's okay Javy, you'll get better" was a phase far from Guillen's mind.
None of us like a negative boss, but sometimes our boss is not being negative, he (or she) is being honest. Sometimes, we work for a boss that's brutally honest. Our boss is employed because he gets results. If you don't get results, either he gets fired or you get fired or both. Ozzie Guillen was trying to push Javy Vazquez to do his best. There is only so much someone can do before throwing his hands in the air and deciding to eliminate the problem all together.
In shipping Vazquez to Atlanta, the Sox have removed a malfunctioning part. As talented as he is, Javy's total lack of urgency was unacceptable to his teammates, his manager and his employer. I wonder if Kenny Williams had to do it all over again, if he would have kept Chris Young and not traded for Vazquez before the 2006 season. Hindsight being what it is, I have to think the answer is yes.
For Javy, Atlanta will work just fine. The Braves are in the middle of a rebuilding project and will most likely finish a distant third to the Mets and Phillies next year. The pressure of pitching in big games will most likely be almost non-existent and Javy will get his head patted and his cookies from Bobby Cox for giving him six decent innings. It's enough to make Javy smile. After all, you've got to accentuate the positive.
Eliminate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
Of course, Vazquez is talking about the many meetings he must have had with White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen where Ozzie told him that he needed to be accountable for his performance. You know, things like "Javy, we pay you a lot of money and you need to go out and earn it, not pitch like a rookie."
Negative or just plain honest? Where I come from, we have a term for guys like Javy. It's "soft". It's hard to imagine a pitcher with the potential he has being worried about someone trying to fire him up. It's also hard to imagine a pitcher with his potential going 0-4 with a 13.23 ERA in his last four starts. These were starts that were critical to his team getting to the playoffs. So excuse Ozzie if he had a less than rosy outlook around Vazquez during that time. "it's okay Javy, you'll get better" was a phase far from Guillen's mind.
None of us like a negative boss, but sometimes our boss is not being negative, he (or she) is being honest. Sometimes, we work for a boss that's brutally honest. Our boss is employed because he gets results. If you don't get results, either he gets fired or you get fired or both. Ozzie Guillen was trying to push Javy Vazquez to do his best. There is only so much someone can do before throwing his hands in the air and deciding to eliminate the problem all together.
In shipping Vazquez to Atlanta, the Sox have removed a malfunctioning part. As talented as he is, Javy's total lack of urgency was unacceptable to his teammates, his manager and his employer. I wonder if Kenny Williams had to do it all over again, if he would have kept Chris Young and not traded for Vazquez before the 2006 season. Hindsight being what it is, I have to think the answer is yes.
For Javy, Atlanta will work just fine. The Braves are in the middle of a rebuilding project and will most likely finish a distant third to the Mets and Phillies next year. The pressure of pitching in big games will most likely be almost non-existent and Javy will get his head patted and his cookies from Bobby Cox for giving him six decent innings. It's enough to make Javy smile. After all, you've got to accentuate the positive.
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