Dick Allen

Did Ozzie at least apologize for his statements Sunday? Considering the answer to what was done was D.) None of the above, he really looks like a rambling fool right now. I suppose if the fans boo if they score 2 runs tonight he will be all over them in the post game. He has already stated if anyone thinks the Sox can win with this offense they are full of s***.

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Jun 3, 2008 -> 01:44 PM) Any word on the big changes?? No trades, Walker is still the hitting coach, Ozzie is still managing. If there are changes, it will be to the line-up which isn't surprising.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 3, 2008 -> 09:03 AM) A slump doesn't last 2 years. If we were talking about just this season, I'd agree - moving the hitting coach is too rash. But we are talking about a team that, offensively, has been below expectations for a couple years now. Even in 2005, they weren't great - just good enough. The only time the team really looked good offensively was the first half of 2006. This isn't a slump. Its a consistent track record of hitters getting worse on arriving in Chicago, or being here and then getting worse with Walker arrived, or just plain hitting below expectations. The success stories of hitters improving under his tuteledge are very few, and the disappointments many. At some point, being the hitting coach, that responsibility has to land on his doorstep. IMO, now is that time. The pitching was pretty bad in 2006. The pitching was pretty bad most of 2007, yet somehow Don Cooper has regained his genius status this year. Its the players, not the hitting coach. You want a better hitting coach, acquire better hitters. Look at the young guys to see how effective Walker is. Jerry Owens was better with Walker than he was or is at anytime. Same with Fields. Ramirez is hitting better now than every other team thought he would or they would have offered him more than less than half the average salary. Dye was better than he ever was in 2006. Now he's a little older. Konerko came back after 2003 and was great, now he's a little older and hurt. Thome came back from an injury, a team was willing to pay half his salary, and he put up an OPS in 2006 for the season that is higher than Carlos Quentin's right now. In fact, Thome's 2 seasons with the White Sox are the 2 highest homer seasons for a left handed batter in White Sox history. He's older now. There have been many postitives with Walker. Its fantasy to think a new hitting coach is going to be able to turn back the clock. Earlier, there was a quote about Edmonds praising the Cubs hitting coach. Was it the hitting coach or a 25 MPH wind blowing out that helped him?

Konerko and Dye have had huge years under his care. Thome was pretty solid the past 2 seasons despite age and injury. Crede has been better this year than anyone here would have imagined. Ramirez has been getting better. Quentin, although solid in the minors hadn't done much at the major league level until now. Toby Hall is hitting over .300. The problem is not the hitting coach. Its the mix of players. Slow guys who swing for the fences slump a lot and for a long time. This needs to be offset with guys who can run a little bit. Unfortunately that has been ignored. I don't know about you, but I think its crazy to believe an offense is solid when your leadoff hitter, a veteran, has a career OBP of .320. What I don't understand is if it is Walker's fault that Swisher swings at pitches that bounce 3 feet in front of home plate and a foot outside and takes strike 3 right down the middle, how come in the game thread instead of ripping him or Konerko or Thome, isn't all the ripping on Walker. Its apparent its not the player's fault they don't hit. I wish I had a job where I made millions that when I sucked it would just be blamed on someone else.

QUOTE (shipps @ Jun 2, 2008 -> 03:34 PM) If a class of honor roll students wind up failing miserably one year when they have a history of succeeding you have to look at the teacher eventually. Unless those same students have other circumstances like age, and injury and whatever. If you think Greg Walker is why Thome, Konerko and Swisher aren't hitting, fine, fire him. Just don't be surprised if the new guy doesn't have them hitting .350.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Jun 2, 2008 -> 02:01 PM) It may be a little over the top, but I was glad to read the quotes by Ozzie. The pitching on this team has been awesome and the hitting a joke (save a few players). I'm glad he's doing this at this point when they are still in 1st place and not when they're 5 or 6 games out. I was tired of all the protecting of everyone on this team. The whole "look at the back of his baseball card" thing was getting old. Some of these guys haven't hit with any consistnecy for a year and a half and treating some of the vetrans and Walker with kid gloves was getting old. While I appreciate Ozzie's fire and frustration, going off like that to the media was wrong. The same message could get across in private conversations probably a lot better. Ozzie was criticizing White Sox fans for criticizing the team not too long ago. If he wanted some offense yesterday, how about letting your best hitter currently, hit?

QUOTE (Frankensteiner @ Jun 2, 2008 -> 02:46 PM) And isn't that what really counts? I mean why bother improving your sucky lineup when it's clearly more important to your fans that you show your manager who's boss. Not that I'd expect Kenny to do something now, but Kenny's comments were beyond ridiculous. How about having your manager's back? I'm sure he would love to improve it if it were possible and practical, however, that isn't always the case.

I don't think any changes will occur, except perhaps line-up changes by Ozzie. KW making a trade or firing a coach will make him look like Ozzie's lackey. Not doing anything will make him look like Ozzie's boss, something he made perfectly clear he was in his comments about Ozzie's comments.

QUOTE (29andPoplar @ Jun 2, 2008 -> 12:10 PM) Meanwhile Ned Coletti out in LA is telling reporters he might be close to trading for a veteran infielder who can fill in for Furcal. Let the Uribe speculation begin anew. Or Cabrera. Uribe hasn't played in 3 weeks, it would be ironic if he is the guy who takes the fall for bad offense in a series he didn't take the field.

Fields is hitting .246 in AAA with a ton of strikeouts. He also hasn't played in at least 4 days. How exactly is inserting him into the line-up going to make things better?

Too bad KW couldn't sign Colon. The Sox would have a starter to deal.

From Keith Law ESPN.com • Brett Lawrie is heavily in Cincinnati's mix at No. 7, while Jason Castro has popped up at No. 8 to the White Sox or perhaps at No. 9 to Washington. If the Reds don't take a college pitcher, then both Houston (Aaron Crow?) and Texas (Shooter Hunt, Christian Friedrich) will likely go in that direction, unless a top player falls to Texas due to signability concerns.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 1, 2008 -> 05:55 PM) I'll make a prediction...we'll see Jerry Owens leading off on Tuesday (assuming he missed today's game for no particular reason). He's missed 2 in a row now, but he was 7-16 prior. He's slugging a whopping .295. Speaking of Prior, Mark is having some more shoulder surgery.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 1, 2008 -> 06:26 PM) Why is there even discussion about who should be playing 2nd base right now? Ramirez is giving us 2 to 3 terrific at bats every game. I never expected him to have the plate presence that he's showing so far. Hopefully he gets more comfortable on the bases, and starts being a threat there. Its documented I'm Uribe's biggest fan, but Ramirez should be playing until he goes bad.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 1, 2008 -> 06:36 PM) They'd never go after Bonds, especially after the latest charges last month. And he should have ph CQ for Anderson or Swisher. That's what makes no sense about his outrage. Wasn't it not too long ago he was ripping Sox fans for ripping on his team. Now he sits the only player hitting much, has a couple opportunities to use him to hit in big situations but feels that the extra rest is more important and his team fails to score. Taking Quentin out of the line-up then b****ing about the offense is curious at best. But I do like the fire. I wonder how KW having to can his best buddy, Wilder, has had an effect, if any on his relationship with Ozzie. They aren't seeing things the same way. It isn't like KW to preach patience, but he knows he has no other choice. BTW, Getz is the only Charlotte Knight with an OBP over .333.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 1, 2008 -> 04:04 PM) Yes, I'm serious. What does Ozzie expect KW to do personnel wise? We used some very valuable resources to acquire OC and Swisher this offseason. After 2 months in the season, does Ozzie expect teams to just be selling off their players for 50 cents on the dollar? Well, KW only has $.50...........................

Keith Law now has the Sox thinking Jason Castro as SF is supposedly on G. Beckham right now.

From the Sun-Times: Williams was at home when informed of Guillen's comments, and made it clear he wasn't happy about them. ''Very interesting, very disappointing,'' Williams said. ''It's never a good idea to throw your boss under the bus, especially when that boss has had his back as much as I have. I guess that lineup will be real interesting to see on Tuesday. ''We have the horses. Everyone has to stay positive and keep grinding. If you're looking for a quick fix personnel-wise, with the climate right now, you're not going to get it. I expect more of everyone in that uniform and certainly the guy leading the team on the field.'' As for potential changes, Guillen is in charge of hiring and firing his coaching staff, a power granted by Williams after the 2005 season. So if Walker is sent packing, it will be Guillen's call. So he wasn't talking about Walker, because firing him is Ozzie's call not KW's.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 1, 2008 -> 04:26 PM) And the Cubs would have ended up trading for Swisher, according to the rumors. However, I'll never believe the Sox were really that close to signing Fuku. I agree. The Sox supposedly offerred more money, but he was ticketed to the Cubs probably even before it was assummed Hunter would be a White Sox.

I don't know what he's going to change. The main guys he would think about calling up from Charlotte, Owens (sucking), Richar(sucking) and Fields (apparently injured) aren't going to help right now. Konerko and Thome are going nowhere. Does anyone really want Dye's contract? Swisher, Anderson are those guys going to bring you much that would be useful right now? I think its a lot of frustration. Maybe they will fire Walker. Then everyone will see how silly it was.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Jun 1, 2008 -> 04:10 PM) They entered the day 7 back. If they lose today, they are 10 under. And they are us in reverse, great hitting and no pitching. As bad as it is to be our team right now, it's worse to be the one who can't get anybody out. If their offense is so great, how come they have been shutout 9 times and held to 2 or less runs 21 times, and 3 or less runs 27 times?

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Jun 1, 2008 -> 04:08 PM) Doubt it, their pitching is worse than our offense, plus they are in a big hole right now. Second off, if you want to be a little dick, that's fine, but please bless us with your thoughts on how to make this better. You might want to take that back.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Jun 1, 2008 -> 02:54 PM) If your going to make a crazy move, you bench Swish, move Alexei to CF, waive Uribe, and call up either Richar or Getz (probably Getz right now) and play him at 2B. That'll never happen though of course. It wouldn't because it would make the team worse.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Jun 1, 2008 -> 03:53 PM) The question(s) I have for people who don't think Walker should be fired is this: Should a hitting coach EVER be fired? Is one even needed? Because it's never really just the hitting coaches fault if you can't hit, but Greg Walker has done about as much as a hitting coach can to show he should be fired since the second half of 2006. If you think Walker shouldn't be fired, I can't only assume you think hitting coaches just shouldn't be fired because it's not their fault, and thus they shouldn't even exist because they aren't needed. Although to be honest, I'd have a really hard time arguing that point of view. Sure hitting coaches should be fired. That doesn't mean Walker should be fired. It would be like firing the guy in charge of baserunning because the team has very few steals. I just hope if all who demand his termination don't ever lose their job for something that wasn't their fault. Your just assuming that a hitting coach makes a gigantic difference in a mostly veteran team. It may if the guys didn't like or respect Walker, but they do. I see all the blame for all the failures be put on Walker, so shouldn't all the credit for Quentin be his as well?

Funny thing about this thread coming now, if Walker had been fired after yesterday's game, the new hitting coach would have been praised for the approaches today. A lot of hitting the other way, and a ton of hits. The fact that they are gagging with RISP, putting that on the hitting coach is ridiculous.