"Fun" ESPN Fact/Swish

[TCQ]

Was watchin sportscenter a lil earlier and they gave a not so shocking fact. Of all the players in the majors with enough at bats for their averages to be relevant, we have the three lowest on our starting roster. THE THREE LOWEST IN ALL THE MAJORS. That doesnt necessarily surprise me that they are the lowest but it surprises me that they qualified for this. If someone is struggling this bad i dont care who you are you need to sit or go on the dl or something.

 

Also, I wanted to see if anyone had any more info on swish. It seems all the talk about our hitting woes are centered on konerkos injury and thome, what happened to swish. He is a healthy younger guy, how do you fall in this kind of a skid? After his rookie year his average and obp went up 18 and 50 points respectively the next year they went up 8 and 9 more points. Then this year He went post steroids Bret Boone. Its sad.

 

And one more thing...Only four teams in the entire Major Leagues has grounded into more double plays....None of them are in first.

Edited June 3, 2008 by TCQ

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

Here is a nice piece on Swisher, written today.

 

 

 

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2008/6/2/...g-with-nick-swi

 

 

I was JUST about to post that here. lol. That article gave me a lot of hope for Swisher. I was thinking he looked better than his average and stuff showed, but i never realized that he was actually doing "average" with extreme bad luck.

[Vance Law]

I was JUST about to post that here. lol. That article gave me a lot of hope for Swisher. I was thinking he looked better than his average and stuff showed, but i never realized that he was actually doing "average" with extreme bad luck.

I was also just about to.

[Frankensteiner]

I don't really understand the following:

 

So where is Swisher’s power? He is hitting fly balls at approximately the same rate as throughout his career: this year, 43.5% of his balls in play have been fly balls, as compared to 45.3% in his career. Yet this year, these fly balls are not becoming homers as often as they have in the past. This year, only 6.1% of his fly balls have become homers, as compared to 12.3%, 18% and 14% in the last three years, respectively.

 

A glance at his spray charts, courtesy of mlb.com, shows that Swisher has hit a lot of deep fly balls. Granted, this is a rather crude way of estimating his power, but it does demonstrate that Swisher has not lost his power entirely, despite his low homer total.

 

Already this year Swisher has three fly balls to the warning track (out of 27 fly ball outs) in US Cellular Field. Last season, in McAfee Coliseum, Swisher didn’t have any fly balls caught at the warning track (out of 77 fly ball outs). Swisher has at least ten additional fly balls that have been caught on the warning track in various parks around the American League.

 

Perhaps I am wrong, but it seems pretty simple to me. The fly balls that were once homers are now warning track fly out. While he has "not lost his power entirely" it looks as if his HR power has diminished to warning track power. But as I've said, it's possible I'm looking at this wrong.

[southsider2k5]

I was surprised no one had made the Oakland/PED's post yet...

[RME JICO]

I don't really understand the following:

 

 

 

Perhaps I am wrong, but it seems pretty simple to me. The fly balls that were once homers are now warning track fly out. While he has "not lost his power entirely" it looks as if his HR power has diminished to warning track power. But as I've said, it's possible I'm looking at this wrong.

 

The problem is he has hit numerous warning track shots in huge parks. About 75% would have been gone if hit in the Cell.

[TCQ]

That 4.5 pitches seen an at bat tells you something. I could be wrong but i dont think he led off in Oakland, maybe that screwed with his head. This guy seems like a good guy and a great team player, he was probably tryin to do too much by seein a lot of pitches while in the 1 spot and its carried over it does seem like he takes a lot of strikes

 

[Texsox]

I was surprised no one had made the Oakland/PED's post yet...

 

yep. It seems that there is something in the air there in the Bay Area.

[SoxFan562004]

great find, thanks for posting. Hopefully this info pans out this month when the Sox play a lot of games at the Cell. He has had a good approach at the plate and has hit some line drives ,so it's good to see stats backing up my eyes.

[Cowch]

Maybe Swish should be on the July wallpaper. Then he'll have a good month.

[kane0730]

I just listened to Swisher's intview with North on the Score's homepage. Wow. Its amazing how much that guy talks without saying anything.

[the People's Champ]

It's hard to get anything going when you are hitting 0-1, 0-2, 1-2 in the count. It seems like everytime up there dude is in the hole.

 

Out of first 193 AB

 

98 0-1 counts

35 0-2 counts

62 1-2 counts

 

Whereas on the flipside he has only had a few hitters counts

 

only 32 2-0 counts

and just 7 3-0 counts

 

 

 

I'm not trying to make excuses for him, but pitchers are getting ahead of him early.

Edited June 4, 2008 by the People's Champ

[southsider2k5]

They know the guy is trying to take some pitches so they throw him strike one knowing he won't swing at it. Frank Thomas used to be the sameway.