Chisoxfn

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ May 14, 2009 -> 11:03 AM) Swisher still has a 147 ops+ this year, so he's due to come back a little, hell probably end up around his career numbers, which are that of a good player, especially with his OBP and his ability to take a ton of pitches, something this lineup lacks. Yeah, it's hard to say what the ultimate effect of the hitting coach is, I just hate the approach of many of our hitters the last few years and I'm scapegoating Walker. Look, you're going to get a chance for your argument to be right because Walker is going nowhere, so we'll just have to agree to disagree and as a Sox fan, I hope you're right. (Edit: God, my spelling and simple grammar is even worse than it normally is today!) If I see Getz turn into a dead pull hitter than I'll shut up forever on Walker. But AJ still does his thing, pretty similar to how hes' been his entire career. I'd say he's been a bit better at times and abit worse at other times but he does drive the ball more than he did with other teams. Dye has been similar throughout his career and is not a pull hitter. Thome always has been and as he's gotten older he's bound to become more of one (most pure power hitters turn more and more into pull hitters late in there careers because they tend to have to cheat to some extend to still be successful; see Frank Thomas). Konerko has also been a guy that tends to pull the ball, but still uses all fields pretty well (but his power is and always will be to Left and Left Center). I'd say the exact same thing with Joe Crede (being a primary pull hitter). So as a hole, I think the reason you see this about the Sox is they tend to have had a lot of sluggers and teams with lots of sluggers tend to be a bit more pull happy by nature. The Sox just haven't had many good "pure" hitters on this squad so we think that its the approach but really its more in line with the type of hitter the guys are for the most part, imo.

QUOTE (3E8 @ May 14, 2009 -> 10:53 AM) I searched pitch type and plate discipline on FanGraphs for all players with at least 100 PAs. Only Getz sees a higher percentage of fastballs than Fields (and it's less than 1% more) in terms of White Sox players. This is because Josh Fields cannot hit a fastball. If you were to only look at the percentage of fastballs for "power hitters", Fields would be near the top of this list. Fields is 4th worst in either league in terms of how often he makes contact with pitches which are in the strike zone. Fields only makes contact with 72% of pitches in the strike zone (this is quite low for a major league hitter), the next lowest on the White Sox is Jim Thome at 80%. Keep in mind Thome sees much fewer fastballs than Fields does. Fields' lack of contact is due to all the extra movement in his hands before the swing, his hitch. The hitch decreases his bat control and makes hitting fastballs belt-high or above more difficult. I expect pitchers to expoit this weakness more and more until Josh makes some kind of adjustment Excellent post.

QUOTE (kane0730 @ May 14, 2009 -> 10:54 AM) Probably can add Dotel to the list. Maybe Linebrink. Obviously both are very valuable to the Sox, but if you can get good prospects for them and free up the salary I wouldn't be opposed to it. That said, they both make a decent chunk of money so I don't know if teams would give the Sox much anything for them. Plus I am a firm believer that in this economy the Sox could go out and find other relievers that would do a similar job.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ May 14, 2009 -> 10:54 AM) Is that Williams Twins thing EVER going to get resolved? Supposed to come down today. I hope they get that 4 game suspension, but I wouldn't be shocked if they didn't.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ May 14, 2009 -> 10:52 AM) well with a few guys in the minors now and see what they draft in June he'll certainly have his chance. We'll see. To me the team is too pitchable to still. The Harrisson (sp?) guy from the Rangers was not pitching as well as his results IMO, they were still trying to pull everything from what I saw, they had some bad ABs against him that are indicitive of struggles they often have, vets included. I'm a big believer in never confusing the amount of work with results... Is he as bad as I or other make him out to be on the board? Probably not, no. I understand he's given specific players with specific skill sets. My main gripe with the offense of this team is that they're pull happy and they seemingly make adjustments to certain types of pitchers. Borchard, Anderson and Fields were high picks, and so far they've gotten very little to nothing from them at the plate outside Fields first extended stint, and i haven't seen that hitter this year. Those are big indictments to me of Walker, as is Swisher. He had an OPS+ of over 120 his last to years with the A's, comes here has an OPS in the low 90's and then with the NYY is above his career average. Maybe the problem isn't Swisher wouldn't listen, but Walker is bad at communicating his ideas Walker had pretty little to do with Borchard. In terms of the other high picks, lets look at the organizations track record when it comes to first round picks the last 10 or so years. It's pretty much pathetic. In terms of Swishers poor production, I believe he's been slumping as of late in New York but I would be the first to admit that if you wanted to point blame at walker stinking, Swisher would be the guy I'd use as bait as he had a solid major league career prior to coming to the Sox where he absolutely was f***ing terrible.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ May 14, 2009 -> 09:47 AM) That's kind of my feeling on this season so far too. I've been pretty level during the horrendous play because this division is pretty average and if this team could get their head out of their asses they'll be in it all summer. The one thing that worries me is it's the same old offensive approach and Walker still just sitting on the bench with apparently no job responsabilities. It's scary to see how long Fields swing has become and seemingly no adjustments. Simple scouting report on the Sox must be throw any garbage over for 1st pitch and you'll get ahead, then if you have two strikes throw it away from them and they'll flail at anyting. Also, if you fall behind and it's a hitters count, don't throw them anything to hit because they're not selective and will swing because it's a hitters count. From what I've always been told and consistent with what I've read in the paper and heard on the radio, Walker is one of the hardest working batting coaches in all of baseball. He puts in hour after hour personally with the players and does his job. You have to remember that its been a long time since the Sox called up a big time hitting prospect (and no, Josh Fields, is not a big time hitting prospect). Ie, a consensus top 25 prospect in all of baseball. Really, if you look at the Sox, Joe Borchard was the last consensus top offensive prospect that they called up and everyone knew his swing had some adjustments to be made. Anderson was a highly rated prospect as well, who had a long swing and was rated where he was based upon pure potential and well the Sox have really worked hard on him and it shows (his swing is better, but its still not there). Crede and Rowand were the last two solid prospects the club had and Walker did good things with both of them. Quentin didn't come through the system but you have to give Walker some sort of credit as Quentin had his best season (he was also healthy until punchin the bat which helped) in the majors. Walker worked hard with Ramirez last year and it paid off too and he's working hard with him again and it seems like just recently things might have been fixed. Swisher didn't really listen as the Sox had evidently identified exactly what was wrong or at least thats what was always reported. Konerko, Dye, Thome have all been relatively fine with Walker. Konerko's struggles last year were due to health. Thome is getting older so we should expect to see his numbers decline a bit and Dye has been steady. I have no problem handing over our next crop of players to Mr. Walker.

Glad to see the captain comes out and states the facts. Hopefully the team gets its lineup back and wakes up. If not, we'll see at least a few familiar faces dealt at the deadline (Dye/Thome/Colon).

QUOTE (MHizzle85 @ May 14, 2009 -> 09:06 AM) It's the one about soccer actually. And it has Elijah Wood and is badass.

QUOTE (BearSox @ May 14, 2009 -> 05:49 AM) I got 7 of 10 as well. The one about how many ways a player can reach 1B was complete BS anyway, as some of the rules aren't even enforced. I f***ed up on the one about the player standing on 1B getting hit in the leg. After I clicked the wrong answer, I immediately released how stupid I was. And for the last one about ERA, how the hell did they get 4.76? ERA = (Earned Runs X 9) divided by (Total Innings Pitched) It says that the pitcher gave up 2 runs in the first five innings (doesn't specify if they are earned or not though). Then it says the in the sixth (again, doesn't really specify if it's the sixth inning, or going into the pitchers sixth inning of work), it says he puts the first two runners on, gets the next two outs, and then is taken out for a relief pitcher who gives up a hit scoring one run, but then gets out of the inning. Am I stupid, or is the final line on the pitcher 5.2 IP, and at least 1 ER (could be 3 ER, but they didn't specify in the first) given up? How in hell is the ERA than 4.76? 5/2/3 innings with 3 runs given up. If he had given up 3 runs in 6 innings it would have been a 4.5 ERA, so in this case he had a little less, thus if you do the math, his ERA was actually 4.76.

QUOTE (daa84 @ May 14, 2009 -> 05:47 AM) i got 8 of 10....i missed the stupid how many ways to get to 1st base one....and "A runner is on first with no outs. The batter hits a line drive that accidentally hits the runner, still standing on first, in the leg. The ball rolls to the first-baseman, who tags the bag. What’s the call?"......i should have known that one though Those are the same two I missed. I had no idea on the amount of ways you can get to 1st base and than on the other one I still think I'm right but apparently I was wrong.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 14, 2009 -> 05:16 AM) Ozzie has been telling Lillibridge he needs to cut his swing down for weeks. He hasn't done it. Maybe when they show Walker the door, Ozzie should be right behind. I'm being sarcastic, but I think way too many people here think the correct hitting coach can make everyone a .330 hitter. Lillibridge hasn't hit anywhere the past 2-3 years, Fields and Anderson have always had long swings.

I hope regardless the Sox give him about 2 or 3 starts and let him just pitch and figure stuff out.

Oh I quietly think the White Sox are really building towards 2010/2011. It seems pretty evident by the way they handled the off-season and in no way shape or form am I advocating the firing of Kenny. I do think if he thought this team was going to compete he made a massive mistake or mis-evaluation but by and large I think he's one of the very best GM's in baseball and does a very good job with the resources he has. Give him the Red Sox payroll and I think we have an organization similar to theres or at least a chance of that and right now there is no organization even close to being as good as the Red Sox.

Plus there in a new stadium this year. By all means I'm not doubting that they are hurting due to the economy but I can't imagine its expensive to stream over the internet at least. Afterall, we were able to run a streaming radio show so I can't see why the Dash wouldn't be able to.

I'm going to move this to the main forum so that everyone reads it and hopefully sends something. In addition, I will send something on behalf of Soxtalk over there stating how our entire site is dissapointed that games will not be broadcasted.

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ May 13, 2009 -> 03:15 PM) He crapped his pants in the playoffs ala Javy Vazquez, not John Danks. Aren't those the "intangibles?" It also helps that he was near the top in run support last season. You mean the same guy that pitched very good for us in the big games in September? Are you forgetting that?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 13, 2009 -> 03:49 PM) I was willing to put up with him there because his defense was saving us as many runs as his bat was costing us. I can't say the same about Lilliputian. I was willing to put up with him because the rest of the offense was very good and Anderson's D was very very important when the other option was sticking out a horrendous defensive Cfer (Mack).

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 13, 2009 -> 03:01 PM) QUOTE Fields just has WAY too many moving parts in his swing now. It's no wonder he can't hit a Pavano fastball down the pipe. Lillibridge is probably beyond hope for this year...he wasn't even able to pull Jeremy Sowers, but continued to flare lazy flyballs to RF. Getz stands almost as much on top of the plate as Quentin. Of course he's going to get busted inside, and unless he turns on those balls and drives them to RF, it's going to keep happening. It's strange to see a LH hitter struggle so much will pitches that are low, but it's the pitches that are low AND inside that he's specifically dealing with, like a cutter from a RH pitcher. That was MY original quote. 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. This was YOUR response, where I never said anything about Walker or making all hitters the same...if I was to say something, it would be hit the ball where it's pitched, lol. WHERE DID I MENTION GREG WALKER??? I suppose we can't only NOT talk about Greg Walker or Don Cooper anymore, but we can't even add our own opinions or observations about the hitters? WHAT???? So you're suggesting that we now ban any poster who talks about any of the coaches or even Ozzie Guillen? Yes/no? Because our talking about them sure as hell won't change the opinions of KW or JR. In fact, if they read what was said here, they'd be MUCH MORE likely to keep them in place. Really, I think we should just curse at fellow White Sox fans right and left, because that will really have an actual affect on how the team is operated. If you want to curse at ANYONE, call up KW at 674-1000 or whatever the number is, leave your name and address and curse HIM out, not me. You can do that, but it would be cowardly to do it all the way from Kansas. Did you call and b**** at Roy Williams when he never led KU to a National Championship, too?? I'm saying that I'm sick of dumb f***ing comments that have no validity. And yes, Caufield, I am making an example of YOU right here right now. Ie, people blaming Walker for getting shut out six times. You want to tell me Walker sucks, fine, give me a reason or give me X,Y,Z. Don't tell me he does lift and pull or any of that bulls*** cause that is proposterious and I also know he'd have been fired a long time ago if he wasn't solid. The Sox haven't just sat around with piss poor coaches over the last decade. Jerry Manuel was a decent coach, didn't take the team to the next level, gone. Nardi Contreras sucked balls...gone. The Sox have done a good job showing people the door at the right time. I know 30% of this site seems to want Ozzie gone or says how much he sucks this year but again, the guy has done a very good job as a whole. I don't always agree with the way he goes about things and he makes some odd moves but bottom line he wins and gets a lot out of his guys. Right now there is clearly a lack of talent in the everyday lineup and there is nothing Ozzie, Walker, Coop can do with it. The Sox have lost a lot of very good players due to injuries during the course of the early season. Now those guys are getting back and having a regular lineup should make things better. If I see most of the guys suck when healthy for an extended period than fine. And like I said posts ago and even dating back to last year, if you want to fire Walker, you do it because you need to send a message down the line (ie, players aren't listening or aren't putting in the effort to get better or you the manager/front office think players are ignoring the batting coach) than you do it. Otherwise Walker is a good hitting coach. He works with every player and works his f***ing ass off and overall does a pretty good job (given that I've never heard anyone complain about him and if the players didn't like him or he wasn't getting the job done, we'd know. ).

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ May 13, 2009 -> 02:00 PM) Is this how WSI started their regime of terror? Yep, Caufields schacaneries (I know I screwed up that spelling). Rather that I think its f***ing ridiculous that people seriously believe that Walker is the first guy in baseball history that teaches the "lift and pull" theory. It is such utter crap. And I'm pretty sure that if this was WSI, I would have had to ban myself for saying Anderson and Fields f***ing suck.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 13, 2009 -> 12:34 PM) Huh? He throws that hard? Have I been missing something? Probably a quick gun, but he was hitting 94 in spring training and it wouldn't be a shock if he's throwing a bit harder now. He had a good fastball in the spring training appearance I saw him in.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 13, 2009 -> 01:09 PM) Simple, he's supposed to help/assist/mentor in order to maximize the ability of each hitter. Dude, enough already. Its not Walkers fault that Anderson and Fields have f***ing awful swings. There swings have gotten noticeably better under Walker and they still suck. If you want to give a reason for firing Walker say its because another person might be able to get the message across better or that it might just be that the players aren't listening to his voice, but don't tell me he's a s***ty hitting coach. Afterall, most players have gotten better with him than they were in previous organizations, unless of course the guy is just past his prime. Dye, Konerko, Quentin are three guys that got much better with the club. Rowand and Crede both improved significantly under Greg Walker. So enough already. Its not Walkers fault. Look at the s*** he's getting handed or what the Sox are putting out there in the lineup. So seriously. For all of you people b****ing about Walker, wheres the fire Coop thread? Oh wait, Coop isn't at fault cause he was handed nothing for the back end of teh rotation so it shouldn't come as a shock that our pitching staff has struggled mightily at times. When a Walker student goes elsewhere and just dominates or turns the light on, than come tell me, but I haven't seen that happen so I clearly don't believe that Walker is this terrible hitting coach. I swear, I'm going to start banning any dumbass that goes around telling me that Walker should get fired cause we've been shutout 6 times when we throw out lineups with 4 f***ing guys that shouldnt' be starting on a major league team, most of which shouldnt' be freaking near a major league roster.

Pods, Lillibridge. Neither belong on a major league roster, let alone being every day starters. Therefor when both are in a lineup on a consistent basis your going to struggle.

Omogrosso has big league stuff. I wonder if the Sox think he's ready. I highly doubt it as I still think he projects more as a reliever, but you can't ignore the strides he's made. However, I think the Sox are trying to make sure they don't rush there prospects to the detriment of there careers just to try to save what might be a sinking ship. I hope Kenny knows he's got some real nice pieces and that he finds a way to move some of his vets and plus some holes and than instill youth and than makes a big run at a FA or two in the off-season. This team isn't near as far away as some would think and I still wouldn't be at all shocked if it even won the division this year.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ May 13, 2009 -> 11:21 AM) To be fair, Gavin Floyd had a good 2008. Cherry pick all you want, his full season totals were good. And if he was lucky in the first half, he was actually unlucky in the second half cause he was a much better "pitcher" in the 2nd half. And I speak of the intangibles, not what the f***ing stats show. He grew so much in the 2nd half of last season and I continue to say I'm not worried about Gavin. I will say that he needs to man the f*** up though.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 13, 2009 -> 11:26 AM) Fields is 8/41 in May, hitting under .200. I was going to tell you I also wouldn't have a problem with Getz at 3B and Nix at 2B, ramirez at SS for a bit if Fields continues to suck. Or at least for a day or two.