Soxbadger

I cant believe that any self respecting Chicagoan would support a site that basically is stating Rio is a better city than Chicago. I personally think Chicago is one of the greatest cities in the world and whenever given the opportunity has delivered amazing world spectacles (The 2 Chicago Worlds Fairs). But hey if you want to support a website that states Chicago's nickname, Second City, is worse than Rio's nickname. Or that Chicago history is a "rail yard", go ahead. You wont find me there. I live in Chicago, and I am 100% in support of a Chicago Olympics.

Flashforward is going to have to wait until Friday for me because Im tired of every station playing their best shows on Thursday and my dvr taking a beating. As for HBO, True Blood is worth it, but not on right now.

Well I guess this settles it: WCSox, I agree completely on pitching coaches.

Thats where I disagree, I think continuity in a coaching staff brings success. And I really dont think there is much for a hitting coach to do, unless its a huge mechanical flaw or you notice that they completely changed their swing, there is not much you can do. Not to mention, the reason why the Sox offense is doing bad is JD and CQ. CQ is coming off an injury so well see what happens next year, JD was amazing in the first half, horrible in the 2nd. Not sure what any hitting coach could have done with that. Rios was slumping bad when the Sox got him, it was kind of wishful thinking to believe hed just turn it around immediately.

Well you could have read my caveat: The difference with Coop is that there are a good amount of players who did not perform as well before he was the pitching coach, or as well after he was the pitching coach. With Walker there is absolutely no evidence of players being better and performing worse, or being worse and performing better. Not to mention pitching and hitting are completely different. As a pitcher you control the game, so if Coop says "use your curveball more" well you can throw it more. As the hitter the pitcher is still in control. So even if Walker is telling them 100% the right information, the pitcher can still attack their weakness. As for the rest, good luck running a team like that. I personally think baseball players perform the best when they are enjoying the game.

I disagree on this. Professional baseball players already know how to hit, they already know how to perform the task, they wouldnt be in the mlb if they didnt. The problem is that each hitter is unique, and for most of them it is their uniqueness that makes them great. No one will hit like Frank Thomas, it wasnt the hitting coach that made him. Walkers job is to prepare the hitters, and I believe that he is doing that. I just dont believe the Sox are filled with players who actually care to listen. And that is an indictment of the players, not the coaching staff.

Indians scored less runs than the Sox last year. Texas has scored 719 runs this year, scored 901 last year. I personally havent seen anyone from management state Walker isnt doing his job, so Im not sure what your criteria is for his job. My criteria is not based on the success of players who he basically has no control over and I dont make changes just to make changes.

OMG KW didnt reveal his plan on twitter and made some nonsensical remark, woe is me. Personally Im fine with this team if they make 0 additions.

What reasons would I fire a hitting coach? Conflict with the manager. Hitting coach and manager do not have the same philosophy. Other than that I dont really think that a hitting coach is very important. I guess I feel like Ozzie likes him and more importantly the players like him. Im not sure that ive ever heard a bad word said about Walker. All players do is compliment him and say that he works as hard as anyone (or at least that is what I can recollect.) Its the players job to hit the ball, in my lifetime I cant name any hitting coaches that I think make a huge difference, and there really are only a handful of pitching coaches who you can say the same about. For the most part hitting and pitching coaches are whipping boys.

lol I think that the defense is more that there is no proof we would get any better with another coach, as there is no evidence that its the coaching that has made the Sox players ineffective. My guess is that my question will go unanswered by the Walker detractors. If Walker was the reason the players arent performing, wouldnt it stand to reason that they would do better under another hitting coach? lol Uribe and Swisher? Im pretty sure part of the reason Swisher was traded was because he refused to listen to the coaching staff. Uribe prior to joining the Sox hit .240 and .253. In his first year with Walker he hit .283 with an .833 ops (career high). So not really going to count 1 year of Uribe matching his first year Sox totals.

In my time on Soxtalk, I have never seen 1 credible piece of evidence that suggests Greg Walker has asked players to pull the ball. If he was doing it, then I would agree that perhaps he is not the best hitting coach. I just cant imagine Ozzie, who likes little ball, would have a hitting coach who is teaching the exact opposite approach. (Edit) CQ's babip this year was also .222, as compared to .278 the previous year.

Can anyone name a Sox player who after leaving Walker did much better? Grass is always greener.

Steve, Come on, I would expect that you wouldn't parrot the nonsense that is on Soxtalk. Walker does not teach hitters to pull the ball, he tries to teach them to use the whole field.

Over 1mil have my first name, 1,054 have my last name, 4 people have my name.

Im in if it starts.

Booo at the injury, Burrish had that Badger intensity you just cant teach.

Congrats! Hope everything works out.

Well I would mind Z on the Sox because the White Sox dont need pitching and it would be a huge waste of available resources to get Z for the 5th starter when we need a power bat who can be the staple of the line up.

Konerko did have a much better second half, but not sure how he was more of a proven player. Konerko had played 4 seasons prior to 2003. Rios has played 5 seasons prior to 2009.

How are 2003 Konerko and 2009 Rios not similar? Both had seasons that were completely outliers to their normal stats. I know you werent here in 2003, but most people wanted to give away Konerko for free on this board. (Edited for typo)

They had just signed Konerko to a brand new deal after 2002. 3 years 23mil I believe. But remember their payroll was drastically smaller back then.

lol KW and Co arent going to give away Rios. Did they trade Konerko after 2003? No. Im sure that they are frustrated that Rios didnt immediately turn it around, but Im also pretty sure that they knew this was going to take more time than 2 months. How long did it take for Contreras to turn it around? His first season with the Sox he had a 5.3 era. His next season was 3.6 era.

The Sox arent trading Rios. 1) If Toronto could have gotten anything for him they would have. 2) The Sox (unlike their fans) generally dont just throw a player away after 1 bad season. They understand that players have good seasons and bad seasons, and not every player is slump proof. Rios is a major part of the Sox future, regardless of how many board experts disagree.

I disagree, I think that Rios just needs time to clear his head and will be key to the White Sox resurgence next year. Some times you have the pieces but it just takes a year for them to gel.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/118748/ ND state's Fighting Sioux will be coming to an end soon.