July 5, 200421 yr Can't hit in the clutch, totally buries the team on Sat and today as well. All Sox needed was a measly base hit to score the run and prolong the inning yesteday. Has a 3-1 count. Tries to pull an outside pitch. Game over. Today was even more pathetic. 2-0 count. Glendon BP Rusch on the moound. Don't even need a hit - just a medium depth fly or a grounder.....Slowbat Joe goes after a chest-high fastball, popping it up. He's low on energy and confidence. His swing is long, bat slow, approach - stupid. Loves hitting into DP and can't buy a clutch hit this season to save his life. :fyou Base-cloggin POS.
July 5, 200421 yr Don't forget smiley Jose, smilin' on the bench after he strikes out. He's been clutch, but theres no excuse for s*** like that.
July 5, 200421 yr Cant hit in the clutch. If my memory serves me right he won 2 games earlier in the year for us on the last at bat. Although I agree that at bat tonight was just awful. Dont give up on Crede yet hes a 2nd half hitter.
July 5, 200421 yr Only Carlos can be proud the way he hit today, maybe Paulie too. The others were terrible. Crede CANNOT pop out at a 2-0 count, he's got to do better than that.
July 5, 200421 yr Author Don't forget smiley Jose, smilin' on the bench after he strikes out. He's been clutch, but theres no excuse for s*** like that. Jose has a 1400 OPS in 'Close and Late' situations this season. I reckon he's earned the right to make an out against Hawkins on a 2-2 count once in a while, eh? Joe is hitting a wonderful .150 (450 OPS) with RISP so far this year, and his 'Close and Late' OPS is 660. Clutch my ass! He used to be good. Now he sucks.. WTF happened?
July 5, 200421 yr Only Carlos can be proud the way he hit today, maybe Paulie too. The others were terrible. Crede CANNOT pop out at a 2-0 count, he's got to do better than that. Then Ozzie sould give him something that's called the Red Light (As in don't swing)
July 5, 200421 yr Author Then Ozzie sould give him something that's called the Red Light (As in don't swing) Huh? What does it have to do with Ozzie? It was a 2-0 count. A bad LHP is on the mound. Bear down. Shorten/level swing. Look for your pitch and let everything else go by. That at bat perfectly describes Joe's season so far - lousy pitch selection and a slow bat.
July 5, 200421 yr Huh? What does it have to do with Ozzie? It was a 2-0 count. A bad LHP is on the mound. Bear down. Shorten/level swing. Look for your pitch and let everything else go by. The at bat perfectly describes Joe's season so far - lousy pitch selection and a slow bat. Yesterday he swung 3-1 at a bad pitch and the pitcher was wild. You red light him let him hit 3-2. If the pitcher is throwing strikes than maybe you let him hit 3-1
July 5, 200421 yr I don't mean to sound mean but Crede is definitely reminding me of Royce "The Choice" Clayton when I've seen Crede bat. Sure he's had some clutch hits (a broken clock is right twice a day) but so did the Choice when he wasn't K'ing. I agree with Brando that his swing is horrendous and it's brutal to watch at times. We need a more solid 3B because, even though his defense is pretty damn good, his bat is lacking a lot.
July 5, 200421 yr Regardless of how he has done in the past...yada yada yada, it was a 2-0 pitch waaaaay high. He shouldn't have been swinging PERIOD!!! Especially if he is going bad. Stand there with the bat on your shoulder and TAKE A FEW PITCHES! Zero in on a zone and only swing if it is in that zone. There was nothing good he could have done with that pitch...nothing.
July 5, 200421 yr Author Yesterday he swung 3-1 at a bad pitch and the pitcher was wild. You red light him let him hit 3-2. If the pitcher is throwing strikes than maybe you let him hit 3-1 No, you can't red-light him on 3-1 against a scrub reliever. Otherwise, why even start him if you can't even trust him to lay off a pitcher's pitch on a 3-1 count -- or at least try to drive the ball to RF for a game-tying double instead of dreaming of a GW 3-run homer and subsequently jamming himself? You can blame Ozzie for not trying Paulie at 3B, or for not making Magglio play through "non-structural" pain against the Cubs - Sox probably win 4 out of 6 if not 5 out of 6 if Magglio is in RF on June 25th, July 2nd and 4th........But at some point, players have to assume responsibility. Buerhle stepped up to the occasion. Loaiza and Crede (to name the most egregious offenders, there were others) did not. I would have taken losing 2 out of 3 to the Twins if it meant taking 2 out of 3 this weekend.
July 5, 200421 yr No, you can't red-light him on 3-1 against a scrub reliever. Otherwise, why even start him if you can't even trust him to lay off a pitcher's pitch on a 3-1 count -- or at least try to drive the ball to RF for a game-tying double instead of dreaming of a GW 3-run homer and subsequently jamming himself? You can blame Ozzie for not trying Paulie at 3B, or for not making Magglio play through "non-structural" pain against the Cubs - Sox probably win 4 out of 6 if not 5 out of 6 if Magglio is in RF on June 25th, July 2nd and 4th........But at some point, players have to assume responsibility. Buerhle stepped up to the occasion. Loaiza and Crede (to name the most egregious offenders, there were others) did not. I would have taken losing 2 out of 3 to the Twins if it meant taking 2 out of 3 this weekend. You're b****ing that he's taking bad swings at bad pitches so then you red light him the pitcher misses and it's ball 4. He's swinging at bad pitches in hitters counts and he's pressing too much
July 5, 200421 yr Author I don't mean to sound mean but Crede is definitely reminding me of Royce "The Choice" Clayton when I've seen Crede bat. Sure he's had some clutch hits (a broken clock is right twice a day) but so did the Choice when he wasn't K'ing. No, it's worse - Clayton never had much talent, so his failures were expected, but Joe Crede has been hyped as the Next Rolen......and stellar 2002......And then he just started sucking real bad. As numbers show, Joe has been ANYTHING BUT clutch this season. In years past, he's been clutch - but this season, he just sucks in big sutuations - that swing seemingly gets even bigger when the game's on the line. I would have forgiven all had he come through with a base-hit in the 7th..... :puke
July 5, 200421 yr I agree with Brando. Garland is too inconsistent to be any more than a #4 or #5 starter and Crede is just f***ing awful. That AB tonight was brutal. Crede has a 2-0 count so why swing at a letter high when you still have the count if THAT pitch is called a strike w/a runner at 3B w/less than 2 outs in a one-run game? He better have a .500 second-half to make up for all the times he's buried the White Sox in the first-half. And at Wrigley this year, w/Crede choking when he was up in a crucial AB, the Sox were effectively (at best) a 5 batter team with Thomas and Maggs out of the line-up and the SP and Crede in the line-up. They were a 4 batter line-up tonight w/Harris getting the start.
July 5, 200421 yr Brando may be right on this one. He's not having a good year at this point. But if he is a second-half hitter like soembody said, we'll be in good shape. I'm just as worried about Willie and Uribe. They ain't hitting so well, either. Cubs Sucks, I wish you'd get off Jose's ass. How you think Jose doesn't care is beyond me. Who cares if he was smiling. Maybe somebody said something incredibly funny to cheer his ass up after whiffing against some nasty stuff.
July 5, 200421 yr I'm just as worried about Willie and Uribe. They ain't hitting so well, either. It's called playing over your head (albeit for an extended period of time) and finally coming back down to earth.
July 5, 200421 yr If you are right, Killa, we're in trouble. Cause Uribe and Willie can't keep hittin like this.
July 5, 200421 yr Someone should explain to Crede that if you want to hit a sacrifice fly, it is much easier if you go to center or the opposite field. Joe Morgan said that just becuase Ozzie called for the sacrifice bunt with Rowand, the next guy (Crede) should adjust and try to score one run, not go for the gusto.
July 5, 200421 yr Author It's called playing over your head (albeit for an extended period of time) and finally coming back down to earth. I don't think Uribe and Willie over-achieved that much, to be honest. They just strayed away from what made them successful in the 2 months span from roughly April 10 through June 15th. That pop-up by Uribe on a hanging curve tonight? 3 weeks ago, that ball is a HR to RCF. But he wanted to kill it to LF and screwed himself into the ground, literally.... Willie looked like you couldn't get him out - even his outs against LHP were line-outs to LF-CF. He was hitting about .340 with an OBP of .400 in the aformentioned 2 month stretch. Now....Ugly.
July 5, 200421 yr I think it's time to platoon Willie and Joe. Uribe 3B, Val SS, Willie 2B vs. RHP and Crede 3B, Val SS, and Uribe 2B vs LHP. Joe is absolutely killing this team at the plate on a consistent basis. The problem was magnified this weekend with an already weak lineup due to NL rules/injury. There's got to be a point where ya say that you've given him enough time to come out of his slump. He showed signs the last couple of weeks but it appears he's slipping right back into that funk. You absolutely HAVE to put your best team on the field everyday and we're not doing that as long as Crede refuses to adjust his swing and approach at the plate.
July 5, 200421 yr I would have taken losing 2 out of 3 to the Twins if it meant taking 2 out of 3 this weekend. You, and others who feel this way, need to totally change your priorities. Other than this, I agree with most of what you're saying. But on this you are wholeheartedly wrong.
July 5, 200421 yr Even though Uribe is now 6-for his last 48,49 (whichever it is) I still have confidence in him. But with Willie, it's completely different. After Frank had struckout in the 8th, I knew that inning was lost because it would require consecutive hitsto get a run, and with two outs, that was a stretch. Willie just doesn't have the ability to tie it up by himself, which kind of sucks. With him it seems that best case scenario he might squirt one down the LF or RF lines for a double. At least you know Uribe can score a run on his own.
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