There is no comparison. Koch's issues had more to do with no longer shooting up while Swisher has just gotten too much of an upper cut going. He's looking a lot better this past week (each game I've noticed the swing getting more and more level). I think we are about to see the Swisher the Sox acquired.

 

Swish is in a bad spot. His uppercut in the swing is all f***ed up, as well as he needs an approach change. He keeps going up there trying to have one of his 5 or 6 pitch at bats, but he's seeing strike 1 and strike 2 within the first few pitches of every at bat because the pitchers know he won't swing. If he'd be more aggressive early in counts (like in the 12th tonight), I think Swish would greatly benefit from it.

Edited May 27, 200817 yr by whitesoxfan101

Swish is in a bad spot. His uppercut in the swing is all f***ed up, as well as he needs an approach change. He keeps going up there trying to have one of his 5 or 6 pitch at bats, but he's seeing strike 1 and strike 2 within the first few pitches of every at bat because the pitchers know he won't swing. If he'd be more aggressive early in counts (like in the 12th tonight), I think Swish would greatly benefit from it.

It's a double-edged sword. If you go up there and hit it hard at somebody on the 1st pitch or 2, it's very frustrating. And then on top of that, a hitter beats himself up for being to aggressive because he didn't get to work the at-bat and see a bunch of pitches. Swisher, right now, as Hawk would say, is caught in between.,

ironically, hitting is down all around baseball right now, especially in the AL Central

 

robinson cano is hitting .224

grady sizemore is hitting .254

Gary Matthews Jr is hitting .218

Vlad is hitting .262

brian roberts is hitting .258

johnny damon is hitting .265

david ortiz is hitting .247

raul ibanez is hitting .268

 

the list goes on and on

now, granted, we have a bunch of guys hitting under .245 which pales in comparison to a lot of these guys, but the comparison is there (most of the aforementioned guys are .300 or higher career hitters, none of our sub .245 guys are well-known .300 hitters (Career avgsThis Year: -- OC:.272,.241 Paulie:.278,.204 Thome:.280,.207 Swish:.247,.205 Uribe:.252,.198)

 

but, the fact that we have Dye, AJ, Quentin all hitting near .300 or above, I think our offense will start clicking before our fate is decided, that's just my opinion. i don't see this as a team slump like 2007, in fact it doesn't even look like the same type of scenario to me, the guys who are struggling mightily are the same guys who are prototypical sluggers, whereas the guys that are hitting well aren't known through their careers as being that (And CQ is just now coming into his own in his first real big league season)

 

just curious if it's the league catching up w/ these hard hitting sluggers (through advanced scouting, better pitching, etc.) or if it has to do with more strict drug policies being enforced now... who knows.

Edited May 27, 200817 yr by joesaiditstrue

With PED use down and the league looking into maple bats, I really think the game may be going into a bit of a pitching dominant era.

Hard to be negative with the recent success, but Betancourt's performance and Hawk and DJ's commentary in it drove me nuts last night. Betancourt has a high ERA, gives up tons of hits, but doesn't walk very many people. Hawk and DJ tell us to ignore the high ERA because against the Sox he has pinpoint control, oblivious to the fact that even though his ERA is high he gives up more hits than IP (1.50 WHIP even after last night) but doesn't walk very many people.

 

So, Betancourt goes on to implement the gameplan every mediocre pitcher who has success against the Sox does, he throws junk to the outside half of the plate and the Sox try to yank it, either whiffing or pulling it on the ground. Hawk and DJ just go on to say how he is magic against the Sox completely ignoring that he probably pitches a very similar way to every team, but other teams take his pitches to the opposite field for hits.

 

 

ironically, hitting is down all around baseball right now, especially in the AL Central

 

robinson cano is hitting .224

grady sizemore is hitting .254

Gary Matthews Jr is hitting .218

Vlad is hitting .262

brian roberts is hitting .258

johnny damon is hitting .265

david ortiz is hitting .247

raul ibanez is hitting .268

 

And quite a few of those guys have been linked to PEDs in the past.

Does anyone know what Thome's average this year is against lefty relievers?

Does anyone know what Thome's average this year is against lefty relievers?

 

It's got to be .100 or worse.

Jered Weaver getting smacked around by the Blue Jays. Blue Jays had same amount of hits in 2 innings against him as the Sox did in 15 innings.

Edited May 31, 200817 yr by fathom

It took two months, but I've lost my patience with Swisher. At least Jim is old and Konerko has the thumb, Swisher just looks like a guy lost without his PED's right now.

It's got to be .100 or worse.

 

Here is a quote from WSI, I dont know how factual this is.

 

On the season, he's batting .220 against LHP, .203 against RHP. The "facts" suck either way you look at them.

 

In May, he's batting .100 vs. LHP and .213 vs. RHP.

 

Taking it a step further, late innings vs. LHP, he's batting .000.

Here is a quote from WSI, I dont know how factual this is.

 

Are you sure those aren't Swisher's stats? He was .220 vs LHP and .203 vs RHP coming into tonight's game.

It took two months, but I've lost my patience with Swisher. At least Jim is old and Konerko has the thumb, Swisher just looks like a guy lost without his PED's right now.

Ridiculous statement. A guy that is slumping has obviously JUST gone off the juice. Nice assumption.

Edited May 31, 200817 yr by RockRaines

Swisher and Thome's lefty and righty average splits are almost identical this year:

 

Swish: .220 vs. left, .199 vs. right

 

Thome: .220 vs. left, .203 vs. right

 

Scary stat (besides Swish's slugging percentage against anybody): Thome has 4 walks in 54 PA's against lefties.

 

Ridiculous statement. A guy that is slumping has obviously JUST gone off the juice. Nice assumption.

 

Well if he lasts another month like this, I'll officially think that. You don't just lose your power and stop hitting in your mid 20's.

Edited May 31, 200817 yr by whitesoxfan101

Ridiculous statement. A guy that is slumping has obviously JUST gone off the juice. Nice assumption.

 

There's been times where I thought he's crushed the ball but then it barely makes it to the warning track. He hasn't hit for any power this season and his HRs already went down last year. It's not an unfair assumption at this point.

Wow. This is like the least clutch team of all-time. We are dead last in baseball with a .185 avg with RISP & 2 out. We were next to last in 2007.

 

Twins are 1st in the AL.

Wow. This is like the least clutch team of all-time. We are dead last in baseball with a .185 avg with RISP & 2 out. We were next to last in 2007.

 

Twins are 1st in the AL.

Which is weird because at least as of last week the Sox were 5th in the league in avg. with RISP. They must have some awesome average with 0 or 1 out and RISP.

There's been times where I thought he's crushed the ball but then it barely makes it to the warning track. He hasn't hit for any power this season and his HRs already went down last year. It's not an unfair assumption at this point.

It pretty much is. He's slumping and we point to roids. He was a first round pick and a good player all throughout college and the minors and the majors with Oakland. The kid hasnt been juicing, its a f***ing cop out by people who have no outlet for their frustration.

Kenny better do something with this pathetic hitting offense. And I'm not talking about a speedy 2nd baseman either. I think that's the least of our problems.

 

Outside of Quentine and Dye (sometimes) this team has zero run producers. Please get some.

Kenny better do something with this pathetic hitting offense. And I'm not talking about a speedy 2nd baseman either. I think that's the least of our problems.

 

Outside of Quentine and Dye (sometimes) this team has zero run producers. Please get some.

With the assets we have, there really isn't going to be jack squat available. Swisher's value's gone through the floor, no one's giving up anything for Anderson, Thome and Konerko are suddenly worthless. The only guys we have worth anything would be Poreda, Fields, and Broadway. You can't trade Fields until you do something with Crede, and Poreda and Broadway just might not have the value to bring in anything more than an average player right now.

Sox haven't come back to win a game this year when trailing after 7 innings.

Unless Carlos Quentin is injured, Ozzie Guillen should be ashamed of how he managed today's game. This entire series has been a pathetic showcase of managing by Ozzie, highlighted by making it so Cliff Floyd could bat against Linebrink.

For today's game...

 

F you Dye

F you Konerko

F you Crede

F you Ozzie for not PHing Q for Swish in the 10th.

 

Please seperate Thome and Konerko in the line up somehow.

 

highlighted by making it so Cliff Floyd could bat against Linebrink.

 

Didn't have a problem with it. Linebrink has been awesome.

Didn't have a problem with it. Linebrink has been awesome.

 

Yes, Linebrink has been awesome. However, they would have ph Gomes for Floyd in that situation if we would have just let Thornton go out to the mound. From there, we could have just pulled him for Linebrink.

For today's game...

 

F you Dye

F you Konerko

F you Crede

F you Ozzie for not PHing Q for Swish in the 10th.

 

Please seperate Thome and Konerko in the line up somehow.

 

You can separate Thome and PK, but you also need to separate them from Swisher. Kinda tough to separate 3 guys when all deserve to be at the bottom of the order.