Ladies and gentlemen, Ozzie Guillen:

“If I see somebody hitting my players and I know it’s on purpose, two guys are going down,” Guillen said. “I don’t care if I get suspended.”

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“If you can’t pitch in or don’t know how, don’t do it,” he said. “It’s getting to the point where they hit us seven times, 20 times in one week, and I hit one, I’m a headhunter.”

As I wrote when Bobby Jenks made similar comments earlier this season, there’s something to be said for the honestly here. Usually, any talk of beaning opposing players is covered up with an “oh, the ball just got away from me” or “no, I didn’t tell my pitcher to throw at him” or something far less blunt than Guillen’s or Jenks’ comments. (Though, Guillen probably could have been more diplomatic about it.)

But there’s a problem with this type of honesty: it leads to MLB investigating your comments. Happened to Jenks. He received a small fine. It’s happening to Guillen now too. So there’s a simple rule here: leave it in the clubhouse. Tell your pitching staff, tell your players, tell the rest of your coaching staff, but don’t tell the media. Because once MLB and dumb bloggers like me get a hold of it, it only escalates. Guillen has nothing to gain from these comments, (except maybe putting other teams on notice?) and everything to lose, like umpires being on the extra lookout for any errant pitch by the Sox’ pitching staff. Ejections or warnings might be given out in situations where they aren’t worthy, but are now with Guillen’s strong words. (And there’s certainly an argument to be made that even though the Sox sit as the fifth-most plunked team in the league this year, many of the recent beanings have had no malice behind them.) He’s handcuffed his team.

I love Guillen’s refusal to play the PR game and instead spout off however he feels. It’s refreshing in this cliched quote era. But he’s better off keeping quiet in a scenario like this.

With the Sox currently in the playoff hunt, they need every advantage, not disadvantage, on their side.