Jeff Manto fired

[2nd_city_saint787]

Interestingly enough the White Sox only have 2 players in the top 100 in O-Swing% (Swings outside the zone), Ramirez and Konerko....The leader in the category? AJ Pierzynski.

[Eminor3rd]

Interestingly enough the White Sox only have 2 players in the top 100 in O-Swing% (Swings outside the zone), Ramirez and Konerko....The leader in the category? AJ Pierzynski.

 

Wait, you mean top 100 in best O-Swing, but AJP being the leader as in the worst? I'm seeing Konerko at 28.5% and AJP at 47%.

[2nd_city_saint787]

Wait, you mean top 100 in best O-Swing, but AJP being the leader as in the worst? I'm seeing Konerko at 28.5% and AJP at 47%.

 

This is honestly the first time I've ever seen the stat. I assume a high percentage is bad right, so I think I mean worst in O-Swing. AJP is worst at 47%, Ramirez is 7th at 41%. and PK is 89th at 28%.

 

With all the talks of the Sox being free swingers, and swinging at pitches outside the zone, you'd think there's be a lot more Sox in the top 100. PK in the top 100 might surprise some (greg) as well.

 

 

 

 

[Dick Allen]

Manto was pretty classy about his firing:

 

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/cws/after-...p;vkey=news_cws

[witesoxfan]

For what it's worth, his walk rate had already been cut in half after his promotion to AAA. This is among the reasons I'd like to see him get more MiLB seasoning because he really was just surviving in AAA (by his standards). He went from BB outnumbering Ks to an almost 2:1 K:BB in AAA and then didn't walk at all in MLB.

 

 

 

Manto never said that - the example he had given in the interview that led to much of Soxtalk thinking that he hated walks was him giving a situation in which his hypothetical best hitter is up with a base open and man in scoring position. He said, in this case, he wants the guy trying to get a hit because a walk doesn't benefit the team. This is, of course, correct. There are some situations where you'd much rather have the guy at the plate take a shot on something he can hit than pass it on to the guy behind him.

 

This is not correct. A hit leads more directly to a run, but if that guy doesn't get anything to hit, but swings away because he is trying to get a hit and ends up rolling over a slider, what does that do?

 

The mantra should be "swing at good pitches, don't swing at bad pitches." There are certain situations where you will try and place a ball a certain way - hitting behind a runner, hitting a flyball - but you need to swing at good pitches. If you put hitters in the mindset that "I'd rather you get a hit with a runner on 2nd as opposed to taking a walk," then your hitters are more apt to swing at bad pitches trying to get hits.

 

I get and understand what he means - you ALWAYS prefer a base hit over a walk - but it's just a terrible way of phrasing it. People wished that Thomas did that and they want Joey Votto to do more of that, but those guys have such an incredible grasp of the strike zone that they generally will only swing at pitches they can hit hard.

[Dick Allen]

This is not correct. A hit leads more directly to a run, but if that guy doesn't get anything to hit, but swings away because he is trying to get a hit and ends up rolling over a slider, what does that do?

 

The mantra should be "swing at good pitches, don't swing at bad pitches." There are certain situations where you will try and place a ball a certain way - hitting behind a runner, hitting a flyball - but you need to swing at good pitches. If you put hitters in the mindset that "I'd rather you get a hit with a runner on 2nd as opposed to taking a walk," then your hitters are more apt to swing at bad pitches trying to get hits.

 

I get and understand what he means - you ALWAYS prefer a base hit over a walk - but it's just a terrible way of phrasing it. People wished that Thomas did that and they want Joey Votto to do more of that, but those guys have such an incredible grasp of the strike zone that they generally will only swing at pitches they can hit hard.

Those guys both probably have taken pitches they could have hit hard too, but with those types of guys, you shouldn't mess with them. With Dunn coming off his 2011 season, you could mess with him. And to be fair to Manto, he didn't say expand your zone to the point you will swing at anything. It's kind of like hitting 3 and 0. Some guys can, some guys think it's a must swing. His point was driving in the runner without getting a hit sometimes is more beneficial than drawing a walk.

Edited October 2, 2013 by Dick Allen

[Eminor3rd]

This is honestly the first time I've ever seen the stat. I assume a high percentage is bad right, so I think I mean worst in O-Swing. AJP is worst at 47%, Ramirez is 7th at 41%. and PK is 89th at 28%.

 

With all the talks of the Sox being free swingers, and swinging at pitches outside the zone, you'd think there's be a lot more Sox in the top 100. PK in the top 100 might surprise some (greg) as well.

 

Your understanding is correct, but I'm not sure where you're getting your numbers. PK's 28% is better than league average (31%) according to FG's table of Pitch F/X data, so I'm not sure how PK is in the bottom 100. Do you have a high threshold for minimum PA's or something?

[2nd_city_saint787]

Your understanding is correct, but I'm not sure where you're getting your numbers. PK's 28% is better than league average (31%) according to FG's table of Pitch F/X data, so I'm not sure how PK is in the bottom 100. Do you have a high threshold for minimum PA's or something?

 

I went with whatever the "stock" number of PAs, which looking at it now is "qualified".

 

When switching it to 200 abs things made more sense.

 

Phegley claims the #2 spot right behind AJ with a 46.4% O-Swing% (Flowers is 55th with a 37.2)

 

Avi, our new golden boy, shows up in 11th with a 42.9%

 

Dayan then shows up at #13 with a 42.5%

 

Lexi's 41.8% is #16

 

So that is 4 of the Sox 9 regulars that are in the top 20....That's pretty alarming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TheBigHurtIsBack]

Personally think this is dumb. It took HOW long to fire Walker? And Manto gets the boot after 1 season? That certainly seems odd.

[witesoxfan]

Personally think this is dumb. It took HOW long to fire Walker? And Manto gets the boot after 1 season? That certainly seems odd.

 

2 seasons. Walker was kept in large part because Ozzie didn't want to get rid of his boys. Ventura and Hahn obviously were not happy with Manto's job performance.

[Jake]

There is common practice of taking pitches early in at bats, for no particular reason other than it may lure the pitcher into a walk. Manto's little hypothetical situation was saying that he didn't advocate the approach of taking hittable pitches in situations where a hit was too important.

[Eminor3rd]

I went with whatever the "stock" number of PAs, which looking at it now is "qualified".

 

When switching it to 200 abs things made more sense.

 

Phegley claims the #2 spot right behind AJ with a 46.4% O-Swing% (Flowers is 55th with a 37.2)

 

Avi, our new golden boy, shows up in 11th with a 42.9%

 

Dayan then shows up at #13 with a 42.5%

 

Lexi's 41.8% is #16

 

So that is 4 of the Sox 9 regulars that are in the top 20....That's pretty alarming.

 

That sounds more like the team I saw this year, lol.