Guillen: Least Respected Manager in MLB

New Men's Journal poll of MLB players names Marlins skipper the least respected manager in baseball

Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen has never been the most likable skipper in the big leagues. A recent survey of ballplayers in Men's Journal reiterates that point, finding Guillen to be the least respected manager in MLB.

In the issue that hits newsstands on Friday, Men's Journal surveyed 100 major leaguers, and Guillen received 36 percent of the vote when asked to name the least respected manager. Boston Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine came in a distant second with 14 percent.

The reasons for Guillen's reputation are well-known. He is highly combustible and not above calling out his own players when he thinks they are underperforming. He's also not afraid to start an international incident, as his comments regarding Fidel Castro showed this April.

When asked about the poll on Wednesday, Guillen was predictably defensive. "Check my winning percentage," he told the Miami Herald. "I have a World Series championship. There are a lot of great managers out there that are very good guys. They don’t get [expletive]. I’m not getting paid for people to like me. I’m getting paid to win games."

To that end, he said he has not held up his end of the bargain this season, with the Marlins falling to 32-31 after losing to Boston on Wednesday. The team has lost 8 of its past 9 games after pulling into a tie for first place in the NL East just over a week ago. When asked to grade his performance so far this year, Guillen replied with "C-plus or D."

"I should be in first place with this ball club," he said. "I’ve got good players. I might not [be getting] the best out of them. Not yet."

Still, he disputed the idea that he is unfair to his team. "I treat my players the way they should be treated." Guillen should be used to this criticism by now, having heard it throughout the entirety of his eight-year stint with the Chicago White Sox.

No one likes to receive criticism in the workplace, but it would be interesting to see how Guillen would have reacted to this story were his team not in the middle of a swoon. When his team is winning, it is easy for Guillen to point to the scoreboard to justify his management style. When they aren't, questions about the value of his contributions to the team are bound to come up.

"I don’t care a [expletive] what people think about me," he concluded. "I have a job. My job is to win games, and I’m going to do it my way. And if they don’t like the way I do my job, it’s easy. Fire my [butt]."

Guillen was not the only Marlin mentioned in the Men's Journal poll. Outfielder Giancarlo Stanton was named the player "in best physical shape" by respondents with 28 percent of the vote. "He’s’ not normal, not human," one player told Men's Journal about Stanton. 

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