http://www.suntimes.com/output/couch/cst-spt-greg172.html

Did he just criticize us for not being able to hit like Ichiro? wow.

 

I see his points and agree to an extent, our OBP is absolutely miserable and some "big"ball has earned us a couple of the wins. Although we are leading the league in sac flies, which is an element of smartball. We're probably up the list on sac bunts too, although i'm not sure. We are manufacturing runs with a lineup that has a low obp, there has to be something said for that.

So true. Sad, but true. Instead of a HR team, we're a pitching/HR team at least

Ok let's see. It's April, we still can't hit, our offense is in a flunk and we're 9-3. Can anyone else see the upside here? :banghead

Ok let's see. It's April, we still can't hit, our offense is in a flunk and we're 9-3. Can anyone else see the upside here?  :banghead

 

No kidding.

 

I am enjoying this while I can rather than look on the downside.

In a way I agree with him.

This team was supposed to bring speed and "little things" to this team, it hasn't happened.

Somehow we've won, so until that stops, you won't hear me complaining. But this is in the back of my mind. We're winning right now because of pitching, period.

Maybe smallball isn't working because our 70 SB leadoff man is hurt, our 2 hitter is still getting used to American baseball and our leading walk guy is injured.

This team was supposed to bring speed and "little things" to this team, it hasn't happened.

We are 4th in the league in steals

1st in sac flies

5th in sac hits

 

That's pretty solid for little things without our leadoff man for 3 games and our 2 hitter still getting used to the MLB.

We are 4th in the league in steals

1st in sac flies

5th in sac hits

 

That's pretty solid for little things without our leadoff man for 3 games and our 2 hitter still getting used to the MLB.

 

i'm not much of a stats guy

but i'm just saying, from watching this team, most of our runs are off HR's.

 

But once again, i'm not complaining, let's enjoy it.

If we're going to use, "Well, our number two hitter is still getting adjusted to America" as an excuse, maybe he shouldn't be hitting in the two spot...

Edited April 17, 200521 yr by CWSGuy406

The way I am looking at it is..yes the offense is struggling but they are scoring enough runs to win...the pitching has been great so far and yeah they will probably come down a little but its only a matter of time b4 the offense really clicks and when they do I think its going to even out the pitching.

If we're going to use, "Well, our number two hitter is still getting adjusted to America" as an excuse, maybe he should be hitting in the two spot...

I'm just kinda annoyed by jumping on the offense after what, 11 games?

 

Also the point with Iguchi is once he gets adjusted our offense will be much better.

 

/commence ripping of offense 11 games into the year

I'm just kinda annoyed by jumping on the offense after what, 11 games?

 

Also the point with Iguchi is once he gets adjusted our offense will be much better.

 

/commence ripping of offense 11 games into the year

 

there's no reason to rip the offense, YET. When we start losing these 1-0, 2-1 games, then it'll be time.

I guess I just don't understand his point. He seems to be gripping that we are going to score less home runs than in past years. By being a primarily homerun driven team, we failed. Now we are trying to use improved pitching (which fails to mention in the article) and a more balanced attack to win games. That's like saying that we should rip the Marlins when they won the World Series because they won a bunch of games on home runs rather than pure small ball. I really just don't understand what exactly this guy is gripping about.

there's no reason to rip the offense, YET.  When we start losing these 1-0, 2-1 games, then it'll be time.

agreed. The main thing is we are finding ways to win this way.

We are 4th in the league in steals

1st in sac flies

5th in sac hits

Funny that the article failed to mention this, huh? Instead, he chooses to make judgements about us based on a single game where we happened to not have any sacrifices, opposite field hits, or bunt base-hits.

 

The media needs to get it through their thick heads that we're not soley a smallball or ozzieball or smartball team. We're not going to make Paul Konerko drop down a suicide squeeze. We still play in a launching pad, we still have a lineup full of right-handed hitters who will take advantage of that, and we're still going to win several games by way of the home run.

 

We only changed the facade of this team to include some speed along with an upgraded pitching staff so we have chances to win the games where our home run stroke isn't on. We've seen it work a couple times already 11 games into the season.

Sox are 3rd in HR and LAST in on base % in AL. I am happy with the 8-3 start but we need to improve on base big time.

read the thread about Couch's article.

We're basically discussing the same thing.

Did not read article just looking at AL stats as of today

Sox are 3rd in HR and LAST in on base % in AL. I am happy with the 8-3 start but we need to improve on base big time.

the obp will naturally increase, and even after that 4 hit game by franklin, the sox have still increased the OBP .017 points in the last 3 games. Its still way too early to say that the teams' obp sucks, i mean even oakland of all teams is second to last and they are built around the entire sabermetric obp stuff

I think the Sox sort of gave themselves the label of playing "smartball" and it has sort of backfired because of the way the O is working. The offense does look like last years, just with a little less pop. However, I don't think it will stay like that all season. I say that because there have been glimpses of the so called "smartball".

 

Like everyone knows, pitching has saved us from a 4-7,5-6 record. Couch was right when talking about yesterday. Did Franklin just have a great performance, or did are hitters make Franklin have a great performance?

 

I disagree. The offense does not look like last years. Yes, we use the HR to score some runs, but we are not solely dependent on it for runs like we were last year. I can't remember baserunning being this strong last year. I don't remember taking advantage of throwing errors and passed balls this much last year. I don't remember generating pressure that led to those things last year.

 

Yes, we use the HR to score runs. Every team is going to do that. It's the only hit in the game that ALWAYS scores you some runs. We do have a number of power hitters in our line-up. They are going to hit HRs. It's just natural. Smartball isn't smallball. If it was, they'd call it the same thing. Smart ball is knowing what it takes to score those runs that we need. If a pitcher grooves a pitch to Konerko (a la yesterday), then f*** yes I want him to try and nail it out of the park. What I don't want to see is Paulie using that same long swing to try to hit it out of the park every time. Smartball is saying to yourself, "we're down by 1 and we have men on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs. I just have to try to knock a single to get the lead" and then doing what it takes to get that hit.

 

Smartball is knowing that the advantage on the basepaths is in the runner's favor. It is understanding the time old principle that the time it takes for a perfect throw from the catcher to second with a perfect tag takes exactly the same amount of time as a good runner to have a lead and to slide into base and taking advantage because catcher and second baseman have to execute perfectly to get the out.

 

Are we going to be an offensive juggernaught this year? No, but I expect us to be a team that understands the game situation at every at-bat, pitch, relay throw, and baserunning maneuver. We're going to see an intelligent, hard-working, tough team that knows its strength is its starting pitchers and is going to do everything it can to give that pitching a lead and then expect it to hold it. THAT is smart ball.

We're also dead last in walks (as Keith pointed out a couple days ago -- it hasn't changed). Not so smart. And while we're 4th in steals, we're also 4th worst in caught stealing.

 

It's not a big deal, it's only 11 games. But it's hard to argue on the basis of steals, sf, and sh that we're playing the strategy very well. (Nevermind if it's a sound strategy to begin with...)

 

I loathe the word "smartball". How meaningless can a term be -- hey fans, we're not going to be morons!

Merging this with the Couch article.

I actually think that our offense did make Franklin look better than he actually is. Look at all the pitchers we faced and most of them looked great and way better than what they are. My main example being Kevin Millwood.

We are 4th in the league in steals

1st in sac flies

5th in sac hits

 

we are also 17th in runs scored, 23rd in AVG, 29th in OBP, 30th in RISP AVG and OBP, and 29th(.156) with RISP/2 out.

 

I think the central point of Couches column was that we were sold "smallball" as an improvement when the reality is is that it was merely a cover for costcutting.