greg775

If the Sox want to change hitting coaches that'd be fine with me. It'd also be fine if they keep him. I blame the hitters, not the coach. This has nothing to do with Walker, but our hitters ... Once again watching another game tonight I see several Royals and Oriole hitters whacking hits to the opposite field. It's something I'm not used to seeing when I see the Sox on TV. I can't believe so many players feel they need to pull everything. s***, Jose Guillen goes to right field and dribbles a two run single through a big hole between first and second, one our big boppers would not be willing to do. What a concept, hit the ball through a hole with two strikes. Ozzie's response via mlb.com A lot of people blame Greg Walker," Guillen said. "But this guy is in here every day, 12 o'clock, 1 o'clock, working with those guys. The last thing Walker is doing is being in this clubhouse. He's out there working with the players, giving them information -- out there trying to figure it out." Many questions have arisen from the fact that the White Sox have combined to hit just .230 while averaging 3.2 runs over their past 12 games. But Guillen was adamant that Walker should not be included in those questions. "We just don't get it done," Guillen said. "Don't blame Walk. All the fans out there, if they know about hitting, don't blame Walk. If they're going to blame Walk, then blame me for giving Walk the job. "Greg Walker works his tail off every day to get those guys better."

Since you brought it up, I'll bite. I want to win as many games as possible. I don't like to see my team lose. Period. Yes I would rather win meaningless games in September and August than lose them in hopes of lightning in a great draft pick bottle. There are no guarantees in the draft. If I had season tickets and went to a batch of games, I'd be royally pissed if the Sox were pissing away games in the hope of improving the draft stock several spots. I'm not saying "I'm a real fan!" I'm saying personally I want to win every f***ing game. Sorry.

I know you didn't mean it that way, but those five stages of somebody dying were really sad. Man, sad stuff. As far as the Sox ... I just don't feel it. Maybe the team will heat up after the Jays kick our ass all weekend. I can't imagine us winning more than one game this series. Probably will get swept.

Wow, we hit two homers and still got blown out. Usually we win when we hit some deep ones. Danks gets lit up ... this team is scary bad right now. If we win a game this series, I'll be very surprised.

Lot of stuff in your post. Lilly has not been a f***ing bench player as you put it. He's been playing a lot of baseball and making a ton of outs. He's hit worse than most pitchers would given as many at bats. We could direct our anger at Oz for playing him or KW, but at some point you get sick of seeing Lilly out there since he is the one with the bat in his hands. Forgive me for not wanting to watch him ever bat again. Yes there will be b****ing about our other players who should not be on a ML roster. You've got to admit we have some very bad fringe baseball players on this team. Right now I'd settle for Lexi and Fields start to prove they are studs, not duds. And Quentin start being Quentin. We've received a break. We could be a ton of games out if we were in the Jays' division. It's time to start playing baseball and not get shut out on a fairly regular basis.

I'd love to see a candid interview with Oz on what exactly a pitching coach does and how much he used on in his career. Ozzie was a free swinger who I would think used a hitting coach to toss him pitches for extra hitting and that's it. Why do people think players listen to hitting coaches?? You think Ortiz is listening to a hitting coach despite the fact he's yet to hit a home run this year?? Why do people put so much emphasis on hitting coaches?? It's a tired cliche to blame the hitting coach or the pitching coach. I would think if any hitting coach deserves credit or blame it's the one who gets these guys when they are right out of high school/college in rookie ball.

Why in the hell would San Diego want a guy who can't hit better than Carlos Zambrano, Gary Peters, Bob Gibson. Why would they want a guy who is one of the worst hitters in baseball, maybe THE worst until he fixes his horrible approach/swing?

Say what you want about Joe Crede -- the man gets clutch hits. Now somebody cite some bizarre sabermetric statistic telling me he doesn't get big hits. Bulls***. The man is a winner.

This is a scary thread. Entering the season the common perception was we had 3 good starters. Now I'm starting to think Gavin is another Gobble. Woe is our team if this is the case.

I agree, but the Sox have never acted like they play the game that way, evidence of the Sunday lineups last year and their overall demeanor. There's never a sense of urgency and usually the team finally gets going.

I like Anderson too, but I don't know if I'd call him a difference maker. The only difference he's ever made was that great catch to end the Twins game last year. He looks like an average major league hitter to me, and a great fielder. It seems like we have some famous, proven big league players, all older guys, and a lot of bad ones. Weird roster makeup, but I guess typical in this day and age of some players hoarding all the money.

Alexei needed some time off, evidenced by his nice 3-for-3 once he came back. He's been a mess at the plate. I don't blame Ozzie for not moving Alexei to centerfield. I blame Kenny (injuries notwithstanding) for having no options there. Why the hell would you move Alexei to centerfield after he played second last year and now is at ss and is already a wreck at the plate??? At least Ozzie is wise enough to tell Lilly what is up with his sad, sick style of hitting.

This was Oz's quote in the Tribune game story from today's game, when reporters asked if Lillibridge or Nix would be the odd man out Friday when Brian returns. He basically is telling Lillibridge to go down and actually get a clue at the plate.

Luke Hochevar was something like 5-0 in the minors and got shelled the other day. Amazing difference.

He definitely is the King of Ohfers lately. This is a serious question about the No. 2 hole. After the first at bat, does it really matter where you bat in the order? Is there some mathematical formula that says you will be the 2 hitter in every plate appearance? Of you sabermetricians out there ... does it really matter where you bat in the order after your first at bat if you are a 2 hitter? Where is Josh's power? I thought he was going to be a home run, RBI guy?

Yeah we do have a lot of concerns right now. Do you think Lillibridge is the worst hitter in modern Sox history?

Gavin needs to face our lineup in a simulated game to give him confidence. Of course, that might be the day we see the good Sox and Thome, Paulie, Dye each hit bombs and AJ gets four hits. This is a scary thread reading how a lot of you think Gavin doesn't have what it takes. We obviously need him.

Generally fans don't get as upset in May as they do once the Bulls and Blackhawks are just a memory. Unless your team is already out of it. We have played horses*** baseball for the most part this year. I am in on the nights we win; out on the nights we get shut out. Isn't that the life of a typical fan? Overall, I'm in for life because I've followed this team forever and will continue to do so. Right now, there are so many more negatives than positives out on the field and on the bench. The only saving grace is the overall mediocrity of the division.

I love how we're all praying for Brian Anderson to come back and save the lineup. Brian freaking Anderson, the definition of mediocrity at best. Lillibridge is like MacDougal. At this point ... please just get rid of him. Make the minor league fans watch him try to hit home runs and fail at it.

Like somebody said, what about the pitching then? The pitching as somebody pointed out has sucked in most all games except for Mark/Danks. Fire Coop as well. Ultimately KW gets the players and Oz makes the on-the-field decisions. If you want a revolving door, then fire Oz and KW and go that route.

OK, then why the f*** mention Walker? I read a story when he got extended where Oz said he puts in an incredible amount of work with these hitters. That's all he can do. He can't tell them all to hit the same way like Charlie Lau did. If we had that, people would be freaking upset as well. The bottom line is "fire the hitting coach" is a baseball cliche that will be around 50 years from now just as it was 30 years ago. Like the mod said, we have several players who don't deserve to SNIFF a big league roster. Period. When people are tempted to post about Walker they should just scream his name and NOT POST. It's a cliche to blame the hitting coach/pitching coach.

What is your point? Is Walker supposed to make all guys hit the same way? This is why players fail. If their swings suck, they are THEIR swings, they suck and they'll be out of baseball soon. We talk way too much about hitting coaches on here.

Cmon. Injuries happen. I'm sure they have the best equipment and training as everybody else.

Thankfully the banged-up Royals are sucking against teams outside of the Central of late. We are only 3 back. We need to start winning series at home and remain close to .500 on the road. We are sucking at home!

That was a great way to describe Lillibridge in your above quote. I would hate to see a stiff like Lillibridge cost Walker his job.