Phil Rogers on Sox quest to find leadoff man

[Balta1701]

Give me one speed guy like Willits or Taveras, but definitely not two.

If Willits is putting up a .390 OBP, then he's not there because of his speed. He's a run scoring machine in front of God.

[beck72]

Give me one speed guy like Willits or Taveras, but definitely not two.

Willits has a lot of SH in his career, which shows he knows how to bunt. And he can take a pitch, as shown by his over 4.00 P/PA. He has speed but doesn't need to steal bases. His SB % is more in line with O-Cab.

[ThunderBolt]

SS Furcal

LF Willits

RF Quentin

DH Thome

1b PK

2b Alexei

C AJ

3b Fields

CF Taveras

Wow. Willitis and Taveras. On the Same Team. In the American League Central. That's a recipe for disaster. I assume you’re a proponent of the speed never slumps, bunting is awesome, camp? Why would we ever put two speed reliant guys, with an injury history in a hitter’s ballpark, where they'd be playing against strength? It's one thing to have a guy who can run the bases, but when these guys are replacing the power production of a Dye, and a Swisher then it's ludicrous to put this combo out on the field.

[Balta1701]

Wow. Willitis and Taveras. On the Same Team. In the American League Central. That's a recipe for disaster. I assume you’re a proponent of the speed never slumps, bunting is awesome, camp? Why would we ever put two speed reliant guys, with an injury history in a hitter’s ballpark, where they'd be playing against strength? It's one thing to have a guy who can run the bases, but when these guys are replacing the power production of a Dye, and a Swisher then it's ludicrous to put this combo out on the field.

I agree with you on Taveras. But I actually think that if you could give me a 100% healthy Willits put in to the lineup straight up for JD, he'd actually increase our run production. We'd lose a ton in the power department, but what we'd gain in OBP by putting a nearly .400 OBP in front of Quentin, Thome, and Konerko would just be absolute dynamite. If you can give us moderately healthy Konerko, Fields, Thome, G*d, and throw in Alexei while you're at it, you're still going to be talking about a 200 home run team on the south side. That type of OBP sitting in front of that power would just murder other teams.

[ThunderBolt]

I agree with you on Taveras. But I actually think that if you could give me a 100% healthy Willits put in to the lineup straight up for JD, he'd actually increase our run production. We'd lose a ton in the power department, but what we'd gain in OBP by putting a nearly .400 OBP in front of Quentin, Thome, and Konerko would just be absolute dynamite. If you can give us moderately healthy Konerko, Fields, Thome, G*d, and throw in Alexei while you're at it, you're still going to be talking about a 200 home run team on the south side. That type of OBP sitting in front of that power would just murder other teams.

I’d like to see more of a track record at the MLB, but given that he’s averaged a .397 OPB in the Minors, there might be something to him. I’d rather have him than Taveras.

[Balta1701]

I’d rather have him than Taveras.

I have difficulty putting in to words how much I agree with this statement.

[beck72]

Wow. Willitis and Taveras. On the Same Team. In the American League Central. That's a recipe for disaster. I assume you’re a proponent of the speed never slumps, bunting is awesome, camp? Why would we ever put two speed reliant guys, with an injury history in a hitter’s ballpark, where they'd be playing against strength? It's one thing to have a guy who can run the bases, but when these guys are replacing the power production of a Dye, and a Swisher then it's ludicrous to put this combo out on the field.

Like I said, Willits is an OBP guy. He has speed, yes. But he makes contact, works counts and hits for avg.

 

The sox won't lack power guys, even if Dye is traded. They will hit their fair share of homers, that philosophy won't change in the Cell. But if reports are true, that basically every vet could be had, then the softball team approach to sox hitting is going the way of the 8 track. The sox need more well-rounded guys. Those are coming in the minors. But until then, the sox want to compete with guys like Thome and PK. And guys like Taveras and Willits may surround them.

[fathom]

Yay, more KW talk about Jerry Owens in the leadoff spot.

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...0,7365624.story

[witesoxfan]

Like I said, Willits is an OBP guy. He has speed, yes. But he makes contact, works counts and hits for avg.

 

The sox won't lack power guys, even if Dye is traded. They will hit their fair share of homers, that philosophy won't change in the Cell. But if reports are true, that basically every vet could be had, then the softball team approach to sox hitting is going the way of the 8 track. The sox need more well-rounded guys. Those are coming in the minors. But until then, the sox want to compete with guys like Thome and PK. And guys like Taveras and Willits may surround them.

 

The same Reggie Willits who barely played last year other than late in games and put up a .552 OPS when he did play? There is no bigger proponent of getting on base and stealing than Scoscia, but when Willits plays 82 games and gets 136 plate appearances (which is an astounding statistic on its own, mind you), it tells you something about the quality of Willits. He's not a good player.

 

If the Sox count on Reggie Willits and Willy Tavares to get on base and score runs for the Sox all year, it's going to be a long f***ing year.

[R.J.]

I've never seen a convincing argument that fast guys create runs. That's such a horrendous misconception.

[ThunderBolt]

I've never seen a convincing argument that fast guys create runs. That's such a horrendous misconception.

Just look at how many runs Ryan Theriot cost the Cubs last year. Statistically, you need to successfully steal that base 75% of time or you're actually costing your team runs

[beck72]

The same Reggie Willits who barely played last year other than late in games and put up a .552 OPS when he did play? There is no bigger proponent of getting on base and stealing than Scoscia, but when Willits plays 82 games and gets 136 plate appearances (which is an astounding statistic on its own, mind you), it tells you something about the quality of Willits. He's not a good player.

 

If the Sox count on Reggie Willits and Willy Tavares to get on base and score runs for the Sox all year, it's going to be a long f***ing year.

The same Scoscia that gave Willits 430 ab's in 2007? Willits was hurt last year. Willits has produced in every year except 2008. Is he an Allstar? No. But he can do the things the sox say they're looking to add-speed, contact, getting on base

 

If we're talking trading Dye, the sox are left with Quentin, for either RF or LF. Who do you propose for the other two spots?

[witesoxfan]

The same Scoscia that gave Willits 430 ab's in 2007? Willits was hurt last year. Willits has produced in every year except 2008. Is he an Allstar? No. But he can do the things the sox say they're looking to add-speed, contact, getting on base

 

If we're talking trading Dye, the sox are left with Quentin, for either RF or LF. Who do you propose for the other two spots?

 

Willits was used out of necessity in 2007. Garret Anderson missed 54 games and played another 20 at DH, Vlad Guerrero played in the same number of games as he usually does, but was a DH in 41 games, Gary Matthews Jr missed 20 games, and Willits himself DHed in 14 games simply because Shea Hillenbrand (who was signed to be the DH for the team) was absolutely brutal. Even so, he was really only good because he hit .290, his patience at the plate be damned. He was also fairly mediocre outside of his first half of play.

 

This past year, with Torii Hunter added to the mix, Willits had 25% the number of plate appearances while appearing in 82 games (while he played games in the minors as well). He may have been injured, but he obviously was not a big factor within the offense seeing as how he played in over half of the Angels games but had merely 136 plate appearances the entire season.

 

I might prefer him over Willy Taveras, but both are very dependent upon hitting for a good average. And in either case, I would want both of them hitting 9th in the order, rather than at the top of the order.

 

If the Sox do eventually trade Dye, I'd look for the team to sign Abreu and, if the team had faith in Alexei to take over CF, Furcal at SS because I very much see them merely keeping 2B warm for Beckham at the current moment. I am not sure they do, especially seeing as how KW has said that Alexei is his SS several times, but we shall see. I will say that I could just as easily see CF being solved from within as I could from outside the organization. CF is a tough position to figure out right now.

[MO2005]

Agent Paul Kinzer said the Dodgers, Blue Jays, Royals and A's are the four teams still in the mix for Rafael Furcal.

 

The Jays and Royals wouldn't seem to have the money, but they'd do what they could to come up with it. "Toronto and Kansas City told me the only guy they would go to ownership for is Furcal," Kinzer said. "They're serious." Absent from the list are the Indians. Dec. 9 - 7:09 pm et

 

No Whitesox? "Frown"

[DBAHO]

Willits was used out of necessity in 2007. Garret Anderson missed 54 games and played another 20 at DH, Vlad Guerrero played in the same number of games as he usually does, but was a DH in 41 games, Gary Matthews Jr missed 20 games, and Willits himself DHed in 14 games simply because Shea Hillenbrand (who was signed to be the DH for the team) was absolutely brutal. Even so, he was really only good because he hit .290, his patience at the plate be damned. He was also fairly mediocre outside of his first half of play.

 

This past year, with Torii Hunter added to the mix, Willits had 25% the number of plate appearances while appearing in 82 games (while he played games in the minors as well). He may have been injured, but he obviously was not a big factor within the offense seeing as how he played in over half of the Angels games but had merely 136 plate appearances the entire season.

 

I might prefer him over Willy Taveras, but both are very dependent upon hitting for a good average. And in either case, I would want both of them hitting 9th in the order, rather than at the top of the order.

 

If the Sox do eventually trade Dye, I'd look for the team to sign Abreu and, if the team had faith in Alexei to take over CF, Furcal at SS because I very much see them merely keeping 2B warm for Beckham at the current moment. I am not sure they do, especially seeing as how KW has said that Alexei is his SS several times, but we shall see. I will say that I could just as easily see CF being solved from within as I could from outside the organization. CF is a tough position to figure out right now.

Considering the Angels had Figgins to lead-off, and Guerrero, Hunter, Matthews, Rivera and Anderson all to give AB's to in the OF/DH role for 2008, I'm not surprised Willits didn't hit much at all in 2008, and as such couldn't get into a rhythm and hit well.

 

He's a perfect buy low candidate IMO.

 

[beautox]

lol its nice seeing Willits get some love.

 

 

[ThunderBolt]

So, it appears that it was Taveras who failed the physical. Can we stop the talk now? http://blogs.denverpost.com/rockies/2008/1...health-concern/