Has Ozzie Guillen Gone Too Far with His Latest Comments?

Ozzie Guillen, the colorful one-time Rookie of the Year manager of the Chicago White Sox, likes to say exactly what he's thinking; which makes him almost as entertaining as he is quotable.

On any given day, he'll blow up in response to a question about steroids, the Chicago media's Cubs bias, Wrigley Field being "garbage," and President Obama's follow-through on a first pitch.

Sometimes, Guillen has the dugout or press conference room rolling in laughter as he spews volumes of unbridled truth at begging microphones. There are other times the media is left to scratch their heads and wonder if Guillen knows those microphones are on.

Sunday was a day when the media was quietly letting Guillen talk.

Guillen let the world know that his White Sox have been hit by enough pitches this year, and that he was giving the go-ahead for his pitching staff to start settling the score.

An eye for an eye? A rib for a rib?

On ESPN's Baseball Tonight, they jest that there's an "umpire ejection fantasy pool" in which members of that network may or may not take part. Indeed, the rate at which umpires are ejecting pitchers and managers for hit batters in recent days is bordering on stupid, and many times the theoretical reasoning behind the supposedly intentional plunking doesn't add up either.

But has Guillen gone too far in proclaiming the batter's box fair game for fastballs?

The Texas Rangers recently designated Vicente Padilla for assignment because of precisely this issue. Padilla has problems with his emotions and controlling his arm, and he has become notorious for throwing at batters regularly.

The Rangers' veteran voice, Michael Young, was quoted as saying it's too bad Padilla was an idiot who threw at people, because it was the nine Rangers that batted every day that were going to pay for his immaturity.

At times in his career, Padilla was an effective pitcher, but could never convince a team to put its batters at risk by keeping him around for too long.

Guillen, a couple of years ago, brought a rookie pitcher into a game for the sole purpose of hitting a batter. When the rookie threw two balls behind the batter and failed to complete the task he was given, Guillen pulled him out of the game, ripped him apart in the dugout and the post-game press conference as well.

To no one's shock, that young pitcher never got another chance with the Sox.

But now, as the White Sox are chasing the Detroit Tigers in the American League Central in a heated pennant race, Guillen has brought any and every inside pitch into question for umpires and opposing managers alike.

Anything that gets remotely close to a batter from a Sox pitcher, could get that pitcher tossed just for Guillen's comments.

Those words can even have an effect on the Sox's playoff hopes.

If umpires read Guillen's quotes from Sunday, there's no reason to think they won't take a predetermined edge into a game with regard to the Sox throwing inside. In the current eject-at-will environment, where warnings have become optional, this could shorten the innings of Sox starters that want to throw inside.

What happens if Mark Buehrle comes inside in the second inning of a crucial game against Detroit and hits a player, perhaps Miguel Cabrera, on the elbow? Why shouldn't an umpire throw him out of the game? In light of Guillen's comments, aren't there grounds to ask these questions?

The Sox bullpen has been overused, and with their big-time trade for Jake Peavy at the trade deadline, they're trying desperately to get through three or four weeks without using a regular fifth starter. This is going to put a lot of pressure on a bullpen and a farm system out of which the top four arms were just dealt for Peavy.

Any short outings from a Sox starter could throw the bullpen back a week, which the team cant afford at this point in the pennant chase.

Guillen might be totally right to say his batters have been hit too many times this year. To put the edict out there that his pitchers should start knocking people down is completely understandable...if it was made in the locker room.

Doing so in front of cameras and microphones means every inside pitch from a Sox pitcher will be scrutinized twice as much as any other team's pitchers.

He might have had a point, but his timing was miserable. Guillen needed to keep this one to himself.