Why Chris Getz Injury Is Good for the Sox

[chiguy79]

Nix hits more foul HRs along the left field line than anyone on the team, they should shift on him like Thome.

[NorthSideSox72]

I like the platoon.

 

And in general, I agree with the idea that we don't know yet which will be a better player overall. I'd hash out all the individual game aspects and which is better at which, but, that's been done.

 

I say continue to start Getz 2/3 of the time, Nix 1/3, and give Nix time also playing the other IF positions and occasionally corner OF, to get him more AB's. Let's see how the league adjust to them as the season continues.

 

One thing I will throw in... Nix is reputed to give you plus-plus D in the middle infield. But he hasn't shown that lately. Its just a defensive slump probably, but, I'm seeing a lot of hyperbole as to Nix being SO much better than Getz defensively, when I don't think he is. I think he might be marginally better, at best.

 

[Dick Allen]

Let’s say Chris Getz came back from injury tomorrow. He's walk onto the field gets 4 hits in 7 AB’s, each one of these hits is a single. In the other three AB’s he strikes out. He's now batting .571. Now, let’s say Jayson Nix comes to the plate. Goes 2-6 with a BB, but each of his two hits were home-runs. Jayson Nix is now batting .333. The 1st batter, Getz, is batting about 230 points above the other batter, but in this instance the second batter has driven in (at least) two more runs then the higher-average player. Thusly, it doesn’t really matter how many hits per ab’s you get, instead it matters how impactful the hits that you do get are. Furthermore, Nix’s real value lies in his glove. The offense, if any, is a happy surplus.

Well Ozzie disagrees with you, and his opinion is the only one that matters:

"[Nix] is going to be my utility player as long as he wants to," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "This kid is a great utility player. I think our plan is having [Gordon Beckham, Alexei Ramirez] and Getz at their positions for the future.

 

"[Nix] can help us a lot when we need him. He's playing very well, but am I going to pencil him in every day? Time will tell.

 

"Now we have three guys and we count on those guys for a long time."

 

 

 

[Ozzie Ball]

Well Ozzie disagrees with you, and his opinion is the only one that matters:

"[Nix] is going to be my utility player as long as he wants to," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "This kid is a great utility player. I think our plan is having [Gordon Beckham, Alexei Ramirez] and Getz at their positions for the future.

 

"[Nix] can help us a lot when we need him. He's playing very well, but am I going to pencil him in every day? Time will tell.

 

"Now we have three guys and we count on those guys for a long time."

This is a man who has kept DeWayne Wise on a Major League roster for over a year, his opinion may be the one that matters, but that certainly doesn't mean it's right.

[WCSox]

This is a man who has kept DeWayne Wise on a Major League roster for over a year, his opinion may be the one that matters, but that certainly doesn't mean it's right.

 

Penciling a guy who has hit .228 in 171 at-bats into the starting lineup isn't exactly an intelligent decision either. We need to see more from both Nix and Getz before an informed decision can be made.

 

[witesoxfan]

Penciling a guy who has hit .228 in 171 at-bats into the starting lineup isn't exactly an intelligent decision either. We need to see more from both Nix and Getz before an informed decision can be made.

 

not an OPS guy, I take it? .777 is pretty lucky, and is also higher than Getz.

[witesoxfan]

not an OPS guy, I take it? .777 is pretty lucky, and is also higher than Getz.

 

That is not mentioning Nix's .323 OBP. Not good.

 

Chris Getz? .325.

 

I'll take the power included, thxkbai

 

 

 

Getz has improved over the past 2 months, and he's become a pretty damn solid hitter, but having Nix has been very nice. Let's keep it at that.

[WCSox]

not an OPS guy, I take it? .777 is pretty lucky, and is also higher than Getz.

 

No, I'm all for OPS. But we already have a lot of players who hit homers and walk. A contact hitter with good (and efficient) base-stealing skills would bring some much-needed diversity to this lineup. I don't know if Getz will post a high-enough OBP to fill the leadoff spot, but I'm getting sick of all this station-to-station crap.

Edited August 22, 2009 by WCSox

[Kenny Hates Prospects]

No, I'm all for OPS. But we already have a lot of players who hit homers and walk. A contact hitter with good (and efficient) base-stealing skills would bring some much-needed diversity to this lineup. I don't know if Getz will post a high-enough OBP to fill the leadoff spot, but I'm getting sick of all this station-to-station crap.

Baseball is played on statsheets, not fields, and things like contact, batting average, and a balanced offensive attack do not matter in the real world. Fill a team up with low batting average guys who take walks and hit home runs and you've got yourself a division winner.

 

All those years the Twins beat our asses... well... that never happened. And the dome is cursed. And OPS, etc.

[Ozzie Ball]

No, I'm all for OPS. But we already have a lot of players who hit homers and walk. A contact hitter with good (and efficient) base-stealing skills would bring some much-needed diversity to this lineup. I don't know if Getz will post a high-enough OBP to fill the leadoff spot, but I'm getting sick of all this station-to-station crap.

Having a diverse lineup is all good and well, but fact of the matter is that OBP, SLG and therefore OPS all have a much higher correlation to runs scored than batting average does, OBP between the two is a wash but Nix' SLG is much better so therefore having him in the lineup will on average lead to the team scoring more runs than with Getz playing every day.

Edited August 22, 2009 by Ozzie Ball

[caulfield12]

Baseball is played on statsheets, not fields, and things like contact, batting average, and a balanced offensive attack do not matter in the real world. Fill a team up with low batting average guys who take walks and hit home runs and you've got yourself a division winner.

 

All those years the Twins beat our asses... well... that never happened. And the dome is cursed. And OPS, etc.

 

 

The Twins were better than us from 2001-2004 because they:

 

1) played much better defense, Koskie/Guzman/Rivas/Mientkiewicz were all Gold Glove caliber

2) their bullpen, from Guardado through Romero/Hawkins and on down, was almost automatic

3) execution and fundamentals

4) better starting pitching, particularly because of Johan Santana's presence

 

Not to mention the Stewart/Hunter/Jacque Jones was a very stout OF athletically...they just had better athletes around the diamond.

 

I'm not convinced that we underachieved that much, maybe 2003 a bit, but those Twins' teams back then were so much more balanced, and they ALMOST never beat themselves. This years' Twins' squad has something like 55 errors while we are leading the AL.

 

But the starting pitching, bullpen before Nathan, and disappearances of Casilla/Delmon Young/Buscher/Tolbert/Punto have been the biggest reasons for their downfall and collapse into mediocrity despite possessing two of the three best players in the ALCD (along with Sizemore), and maybe 3 of 5 if you consider Nathan.

 

 

[WCSox]

Having a diverse lineup is all good and well, but fact of the matter is that OBP, SLG and therefore OPS all have a much higher correlation to runs scored than batting average does, OBP between the two is a wash but Nix' SLG is much better so therefore having him in the lineup will on average lead to the team scoring more runs than with Getz playing every day.

 

Waiting around for the three-run homer also means highly-inconsistent scoring. Scoring more total runs in a season doesn't necessarily translate into more wins, which is what really matters. I also wouldn't completely dismiss the benefit of a higher batting average. A single is more valuable than a walk.

 

The Sox need a true leadoff hitter with solid base-stealing ability. If that void can be filled by Getz, so be it. If not, they need to look elsewhere this winter.

 

Edited August 22, 2009 by WCSox

[ThunderBolt]

The Examiner runs the math, concludes Nix is better, and then oddly concludes he’d still want Getz over Nix. I think this debate calls for a new statistic, “The Grinder Effect”, I’m just not sure if it’s measurable. http://www.examiner.com/x-425-Chicago-Whit...r-the-White-Sox

[Disco72]

The Examiner runs the math, concludes Nix is better, and then oddly concludes he’d still want Getz over Nix. I think this debate calls for a new statistic, “The Grinder Effect”, I’m just not sure if it’s measurable. http://www.examiner.com/x-425-Chicago-Whit...r-the-White-Sox

 

Nix isn't exactly shining in his "full-time" opportunity right now. He's being exposed offensively, and he continues to make big mistakes on defense regardless of what the defensive stats say about his runs saved.

[southsider2k5]

Like I have said before, this is one situation Ozzie has been 100% right on. This is a perfect platoon situation. Nix is great versus lefties and scary versus righties. Getz has been solid the other way around.

[WCSox]

Nix isn't exactly shining in his "full-time" opportunity right now. He's being exposed offensively, and he continues to make big mistakes on defense regardless of what the defensive stats say about his runs saved.

 

Yet another example of why drawing conclusions from small samples sizes is a bad idea.

 

[Disco72]

Yet another example of why drawing conclusions from small samples sizes is a bad idea.

 

In baseball, sometimes small sample sizes is all you have. If Nix wants to keep the starting spot, he needs to "steal" it by making it impossible for Ozzie to go back to the status quo when Getz is back. His power was on display this month (3 HRs, 2 2Bs), but so was his defense (in a bad way - 3 errors this month). For a guy that is supposed to bring so much with his glove, he's been disappointing this month.

[WCSox]

In baseball, sometimes small sample sizes is all you have. If Nix wants to keep the starting spot, he needs to "steal" it by making it impossible for Ozzie to go back to the status quo when Getz is back. His power was on display this month (3 HRs, 2 2Bs), but so was his defense (in a bad way - 3 errors this month). For a guy that is supposed to bring so much with his glove, he's been disappointing this month.

 

True, but my point is that people in this thread really jumped the gun on Nix with a limited amount of data.

 

[southsider2k5]

In baseball, sometimes small sample sizes is all you have. If Nix wants to keep the starting spot, he needs to "steal" it by making it impossible for Ozzie to go back to the status quo when Getz is back. His power was on display this month (3 HRs, 2 2Bs), but so was his defense (in a bad way - 3 errors this month). For a guy that is supposed to bring so much with his glove, he's been disappointing this month.

 

Nix has 10 errors in 69 games worth of play this year. Only 51 of those were starts.

[Ozzie Ball]

Nix has 10 errors in 69 games worth of play this year. Only 51 of those were starts.

Nix' defensive value comes from his range, not his error rating. I'm not sure how many times that needs to be pointed out.

[Balta1701]

Nix' defensive value comes from his range, not his error rating. I'm not sure how many times that needs to be pointed out.

That doesn't mean we need to like the errors.

[Ozzie Ball]

That doesn't mean we need to like the errors.

When people start praising his range I'll happily see them knock his error total.

[Disco72]

When people start praising his range I'll happily see them knock his error total.

 

I think most people recognize the range argument but can't consider a guy "excellent" defensively when he makes so many mistakes. Of course, Nix is helping himself out tonight with his bat.

[southsider2k5]

That doesn't mean we need to like the errors.

 

I'd rather see a ball get past him then it get thrown away for two bases.

[ThunderBolt]

That doesn't mean we need to like the errors.

Errors are an odd statistic anyway, as many times they’re simply in the eye of the beholder. A lot of errors are absurd, because it took everything for the fielder in question just to get to ball nevertheless, make a play on it.