I didn't include Thome due to his injury or Anderson since this will be his first full season. Out of the others though, Iguchi seems like he has the most room for improvement from his transition to US baseball, and Crede and Uribe seem to be ready for breakout years. AJ had a down year hitting in 05, and Paulie will now be protected by Thome in the lineup.

 

So out of those, who will be the most improved in 2006?

I gotta go with Iguchi, I think he'll put up a great year this year. I don't know how much more Konerko or Dye could improve. I'd love to see Uribe improve in his average along with Crede.

I gotta go with the Rally Crede. I hope he starts where he left off after coming off the DL last fall.

Uribe. I don't think he will put up his 2004 numbers again but his new leg kick timing method and improved plate patience should help him put up numbers right between his 2004 and 2005 seasons.

 

Juan Uribe (2005 Pre All-Star stats)

240 AB

.246 AVG

.276 OBP

.379 SLG

.655 OPS

6 HR

38 RBI

13 BB

41 K

 

Juan Uribe (2005 Post All-Star stats)

241 AB

.257 AVG

.325 OBP

.444 SLG

.769 OPS

10 HR

33 RBI

21 BB

36 K

 

Uribe improved his OPS by .114 points after the All-Star break last season. I think he will put up numbers in 2006 closer to his .769 OPS in the second half of last year.

Edited January 18, 200620 yr by SSH2005

Gotta go with the Gooch.

Personally, I gotta go with A.J., for a bunch of reasons. First, last year was simply his worst year with the bat. His power numbers masked that some, but he hit 30 points below his career average, and 50 points below what he was usually hitting in Minnesota. He still has all the advantages of hitting in the Cell next year to help push his power numbers back up, but all he really needs to do is get that average back up and his numbers should go through the roof.

 

Furthermore, just watching him last year, I can't think of anyone else on our team who hit more lined shots directly at defensive players on the other team. Every week it'd seem like he'd hit 3-4 rockets right at people that just always seemed to turn into outs. I kept thinking he was going to catch fire all year, but he just never did.

 

I'd love to say Crede here...but my head tells me AJ will go up the most.

Gotta go with the Gooch.

Agreed. But i do feel that uribe will do better this year than in 05.

Agreed. But i do feel that uribe will do better this year than in 05.

I think that Gooch, Uribe, Crede, Pierzynski, and (God willing) Konerko all have good shots to do better next year than in 05, I just think AJ has the best shot at improving the most.

Between Iguchi and Uribe. I think the change for Juan from 9 to 2 will help and thw change for Tad from 2 to 6 will help too. At least I hope so. We all know what Juanny did in 2004 batting 2nd and Gooch's numbers in Japan were from when he batted in the middle of the lineup.

The two players on the left side of the infield will improve more than anyone on the right side of the infield in '06

I knew that there would be a few consensus picks to improve next year, but it is pretty interesting to see the order. Gooch looks like he is the most popular, then Crede and Uribe, then AJ.

 

The good thing is that as long as each player can at least do what they did last year and at the same time have a few of these guys improve, the Sox will be improved offensively next year. That is not even taking the addition of Thome into consideration, which in itself should be a huge boost.

 

So regardless of how many second-order wins the Sox had last year, I cannot see how they will be worse than last year unless several players regress unexpectedly or get injured for an extended period.

 

 

BTW, SoxFan1, I love the new Sig. Should have Peanut laying on the field though.

Edited January 18, 200620 yr by RME JICO

The good thing is that as long as each player can at least do what they did last year and at the same time have a few of these guys improve, the Sox will be improved offensively next year.  That is not even taking the addition of Thome into consideration, which in itself should be a huge boost.

 

So regardless of how many second-order wins the Sox had last year, I cannot see how they will be worse than last year unless several players regress unexpectedly or get injured for an extended period.

The other side of that token is this one...we did what we did last year with only 3 people in our lineup really putting up numbers that weren't below their career numbers, maybe 4 if you count Iguchi (since half of what he did was move Pods over anyway).

 

Therefore, we won the world freaking series with Crede, Pierzynski, Rowand, Uribe, and DH all having significant room for improvement offensively, and very little room to get worse offensively.

 

If any of those guys (BA instead of ARow), and Iguchi and Konerko, step it up next year...we could wind up going from winning a world series on entirely pitching to having one of the best combinations of pitching, offense, and defense seen in years. If you just look at our lineup, and try to project "What is the best reasonable numbers we could expect from this guy", then there's enough there for people to really be afraid of our lineup, up and down the list.

The other side of that token is this one...we did what we did last year with only 3 people in our lineup really putting up numbers that weren't below their career numbers, maybe 4 if you count Iguchi (since half of what he did was move Pods over anyway).

 

Therefore, we won the world freaking series with Crede, Pierzynski, Rowand, Uribe, and DH all having significant room for improvement offensively, and very little room to get worse offensively.

 

If any of those guys (BA instead of ARow), and Iguchi and Konerko, step it up next year...we could wind up going from winning a world series on entirely pitching to having one of the best combinations of pitching, offense, and defense seen in years.  If you just look at our lineup, and try to project "What is the best reasonable numbers we could expect from this guy", then there's enough there for people to really be afraid of our lineup, up and down the list.

 

I agree 100%. It is hard to see anyone having a significant drop-off. People always said that it would be hard to repeat by winning all those one run games again, but with the new lineup I don't think the Sox will be in as many as last year. If the offense scores more, that will also take the pressure off the pitchers, which is always a good thing, especially for someone like Vazquez.

 

You take all that into consideration, then you throw the postseason experience into the equation and they are a pretty tough group to match up with.

 

If Anderson can match Rowand's numbers from 2005: 13 HR, 69 RBI, and .270 AVG, .329 OBP, .407 SLG, .736 OPS, and have a lower K total (Rowand 116 in 578 AB), the Sox are going to be looking really good across the board.

Uribe will explode in 2006! I think he broke out with his defense and decent hitting in the post season but this will be the year he puts it all together.

I know we've all been waiting and longing for Joe Crede to be the offensive threat everyone said he would be. Looking at his final weeks of 2005, I think 2006 will be his "Jon Garland" be all you can be year.

Uribe.  I don't think he will put up his 2004 numbers again but his new leg kick timing method and improved plate patience should help him put up numbers right between his 2004 and 2005 seasons.

 

Juan Uribe (2005 Pre All-Star stats)

240 AB

.246 AVG

.276 OBP

.379 SLG

.655 OPS

6 HR

38 RBI

13 BB

41 K

 

Juan Uribe (2005 Post All-Star stats)

241 AB

.257 AVG

.325 OBP

.444 SLG

.769 OPS

10 HR

33 RBI

21 BB

36 K

 

Uribe improved his OPS by .114 points after the All-Star break last season.  I think he will put up numbers in 2006 closer to his .769 OPS in the second half of last year.

 

If I'm remembering right here, Uribe didn't develop the leg kick until like mid-late August -early September.

If I'm remembering right here, Uribe didn't develop the leg kick until like mid-late August -early September.

Yeah,

Here is his Sept Splits:

 

92 AB

.304 AVG

.379 OBP

.641 SLG

1.020 OPS

7 HR

16 RBI

10 BB

10 K

 

and Post Season:

 

42 AB

.286 AVG

.362 OBP

.476 SLG

.838 OPS

1 HR

6 RBI

5 BB

8 K

Uribe will explode in 2006!  I think he broke out with his defense and decent hitting in the post season but this will be the year he puts it all together.

 

I think this is going to be a big year for Uribe, he looks so good sometimes

I agree 100%.  It is hard to see anyone having a significant drop-off.  People always said that it would be hard to repeat by winning all those one run games again, but with the new lineup I don't think the Sox will be in as many as last year.  If the offense scores more, that will also take the pressure off the pitchers, which is always a good thing, especially for someone like Vazquez. 

 

You take all that into consideration, then you throw the postseason experience into the equation and they are a pretty tough group to match up with.

 

If Anderson can match Rowand's numbers from 2005: 13 HR, 69 RBI, and .270 AVG, .329 OBP, .407 SLG, .736 OPS, and have a lower K total (Rowand 116 in 578 AB), the Sox are going to be looking really good across the board.

I would go even farther than that and say that it seems nearly impossible to expect a significant drop-off offensively...for the simple reason that some of our guys' performances last year were so far down from where they should have been that if they fall any farther...then suddenly we'll Pablo, Machowiak, the Widge, or maybe even Borchard getting more playing time. If Crede falls below hitting .240...it's not that hard to find someone who'll perform better. Ditto Uribe. Ditto Anderson.

 

If our guys on the bench don't wind up working out either for some reason, then it's also not going to be that hard to peel off some old, veteran infielder or something like that from a team like the Royals or someone who has fallen completely out of the race. We didn't exactly give up a ton for Blum, and there's no reason we won't be able to find a backup somewhere who could hit .250 for us if given regular playing time.

We have waited and waited and then we waited longer. This is the year when Joe Crede finally becomes a household name around national baseball circles, we know he has always had the talent, more in question was perhaps his focus and dedication. After seeing last year's stretch run, we finally saw the Joe Crede that we all used to compare as the next Ventura. Last year Joe started out on fire and quickly fizzled out once his timing was screwed by numerous days off early in the season. Distractions, including his back continued to linger in that last half of the season, yet Joe was focused enough this time to overcome such obstacles because he was relaxed and was having fun for once. Going down 0-2 in the count for Crede used to result in one of two things, the most common strike out or a infield fly out. Game 1 of the World Series Joe put an 0-2 pitch into right center field to give us the lead. Some will say he's just always been clutch, I say Joe Crede's egg has finally hatched. Asking for over .250 from Joe was asking an awful lot in the past, I feel he has approached his prime years ready to excel with the confidence that he gained late last season.

I'm gonna go with Uribe. I think he will have a season close to what he had in 2004, hopefully with more consistancy.

Gooch if they move him down in the lineup, Uribe otherwise

Joe Crede. But I would like to see Pierzynski get his average back up to when he was with the Twins.

Iguchi easily, he should be well adjusted to major league pitching by now. Maybe Uribe also based on how he ended his season but its too hard to say.

Edited January 20, 200620 yr by ChWRoCk2

I look for either Crede or Uribe to break loose.