Pods70Rowand33 Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 Does anyone feel comfortable with Harris at 2nd as the regular starter? As of now it looks as if he will be the starter, and will probably be in the 9 hole...He has a decent glove...and if he's batting 9th he could be like another leadoff, with pods at the top..what great speed we would have back to back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwerty Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 Perfectly fine, if he can hit in the .260's-.270's consistently with a nice obp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshPR Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 Willie is good with the Glove, I worry about his bat. If he can do as Querty Mentioned i have no problem with Willie. I followed Willie In Winterball 2 or 3 years back. Gave my team a lot of emotions. Hit the Championship Winning homer. Talked to him briefly once, was a nice guy, Shoke me and my X grilfrend's hand. Was cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soxfan420 Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 i dont worry about harris or burke i do worry at ben davis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwerty Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 i dont worry about harris or burke i do worry at ben davis Me too, especially since davis is gonna be playing a petty damn big role next season. I evision him catching at least 100 games next year if not 120. Which scares the s*** out of me because he is not very good defensively and even worse offensively. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitesox91403 Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 My thought on Harris is that if he is going to be given another chance than I hope there is a suitable fall back option in place right away. Last year's fall back will be the starting shortstop and Wilson Valdez and Robbie Alomar aren't acceptable. I'm with the consensus on Davis too. Whether or not this stat matters, of all the catchers The Sox used last year: Olivo, Alomar, Burke, Davis; The pitching staff had the highest ERA when Davis caught. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witesoxfan Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 I have all the faith in the world that he can handle RHP very well. What we do against LHP is what scares the s*** out of me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwerty Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 I'm with the consensus on Davis too. Whether or not this stat matters, of all the catchers The Sox used last year: Olivo, Alomar, Burke, Davis; The pitching staff had the highest ERA when Davis caught. He came over the second half of the season when the entire staff just imploded. I don't think it would have really mattered who caught them. His defense does suck ass though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelasDaddy0427 Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 I don't think it's any secret of my opinion. I have been saying for months that I wanted Harris to be able to have a full season at 2nd base, batting 9th so he can have less pressure on him and work out his problems. Maybe something will click for him. IMO he's better defensively then 90% of the second basemen in baseball so he's not going to hurt us with his glove. He just needs to bring up his average a bit when it comes to LHP and he'll be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Lopez Ghost (old) Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 Cannot hit lefties. Cannot Cannot Cannot. Won't steal. He may have attitude problems - there seems to be a lot of implied criticism of him along those lines. But, we could live with him as a strictly platoon guy, but that's all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilJester99 Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 Willie is going to be the next Royce Clayton....good defense but can't hit a lick...hopefully he will prove me wrong and hit decent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lvjeremylv Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 He came over the second half of the season when the entire staff just imploded. Sox pitching imploding in the 2nd half? That never happens. :rolly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lvjeremylv Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 Perfectly fine, if he can hit in the .260's-.270's consistently with a nice obp. Wow. When you said the thing about hitting .260-.270 consistently, I raised my eyebrow and went to check his stats from 2004. He hit .262, which was a little higher than I remember, but the thing that impressed me is his OBP - .343 (he drew 51 walks). Last season was by FAR the most at bats Willie's had in a season (409 last season compared to 324 combined from 2001-2003), so hopefully he can continue on the improvement if he gets 450-500 this season. A .343 OBP is definitely acceptable IMO for a #9 hitter, and his defense was pretty good, too. 92 games played at 2B, and only 4 errors. That'll get the job done. And 19 steals is solid for a guy who wasn't quite a full-time player. What I wish the Sox would have done, though, is gone out and gotten SOMEBODY to come in and challenge Willie for the job. I think that would push him to be the best he could be. Hopefully he'll continue to progress and maybe get that average up to .270 and OBP over .350. But, if a reprint of last year were offered, I'd take it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkokieSox Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 My thought on Harris is that if he is going to be given another chance than I hope there is a suitable fall back option in place right away. Last year's fall back will be the starting shortstop and Wilson Valdez and Robbie Alomar aren't acceptable. I'm with the consensus on Davis too. Whether or not this stat matters, of all the catchers The Sox used last year: Olivo, Alomar, Burke, Davis; The pitching staff had the highest ERA when Davis caught. The ERA was the highest, but deceivingly so IMO. The club in general didn't play well down the stretch, and I do believe he caught for Contreras the games where he got absolutely tagged. Also, half a season of catching didn't allow it to even out the way it would over the course of an entire season. That's how I see it anyway. Maybe not the biggest bat in the lineup, but as Hawk says, he can be dangerous at the plate. He has a strong arm, and has defensive skills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CWSGuy406 Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 Wow. When you said the thing about hitting .260-.270 consistently, I raised my eyebrow and went to check his stats from 2004. He hit .262, which was a little higher than I remember, but the thing that impressed me is his OBP - .343 (he drew 51 walks). Last season was by FAR the most at bats Willie's had in a season (409 last season compared to 324 combined from 2001-2003), so hopefully he can continue on the improvement if he gets 450-500 this season. A .343 OBP is definitely acceptable IMO for a #9 hitter, and his defense was pretty good, too. 92 games played at 2B, and only 4 errors. That'll get the job done. And 19 steals is solid for a guy who wasn't quite a full-time player. What I wish the Sox would have done, though, is gone out and gotten SOMEBODY to come in and challenge Willie for the job. I think that would push him to be the best he could be. Hopefully he'll continue to progress and maybe get that average up to .270 and OBP over .350. But, if a reprint of last year were offered, I'd take it. Good post, Jeremy. What I'd like to see them do, if they don't bring in Miguel Cairo, is platoon Harris/Valdez at second base. While Valdez isn't an ideal platoon guy, you have to think that he can hit LHP's better than Harris. Harris is definitely fine against RHP's, just like everyone has already said -- just gotta find a platoon guy who can LHP's equally well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BamaDoc Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 I also checked the stats. Willie was .279 vs righthanders with a .366 OBP. I would take those same numbers in a heartbeat for next year if he was a platoon player. In fact, I agree with others that his stealing will improve due to comfort and Raines. If he is a good fastball hitter and an appropriate platoon partner was found, they could even man the two slot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fathom Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 Willie Harris is not a number 2 hitter. He doesn't know how to handle the bat at all. He's a terrible sacrifice bunter. A couple of things that Willie really needs to improve on are not rolling over on his wrists, which causes him to hit weak grounders to 2b and to also improve his eye at the plate in regards to taking pitches with 2 strikes. Way too many times last year did he strikeout looking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TLAK Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 Willie Harris is not a number 2 hitter. He doesn't know how to handle the bat at all. He's a terrible sacrifice bunter. A couple of things that Willie really needs to improve on are not rolling over on his wrists, which causes him to hit weak grounders to 2b and to also improve his eye at the plate in regards to taking pitches with 2 strikes. Way too many times last year did he strikeout looking. I'll attest he was a terrible bunter last year. I was a game last year with my brother and he almost took it in the teeth on his first try. On the second I said "I hope he doesn't hurt himself", my brother said "I hope he does". He got on on catchers interference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elrockinMT Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 My thought on Harris is that if he is going to be given another chance than I hope there is a suitable fall back option in place right away. Last year's fall back will be the starting shortstop and Wilson Valdez and Robbie Alomar aren't acceptable. I'm with the consensus on Davis too. Whether or not this stat matters, of all the catchers The Sox used last year: Olivo, Alomar, Burke, Davis; The pitching staff had the highest ERA when Davis caught. I don't think we should feel too comfortable with the catching staff of either Davis and Burke at all. Burke may swing a better bat, but his catching defense is not that good. Davis is questionable all the way around. They need working with from the catching guru, whoever that might be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fathom Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 One thing that worries me about Burke is that he sure seemed to be finding all the holes last year. He was swinging Hawk's mythical "magic wand" last year. I wouldn't be shocked if he hit .225 last year as opposed to .325. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwerty Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 One thing that worries me about Burke is that he sure seemed to be finding all the holes last year. He was swinging Hawk's mythical "magic wand" last year. I wouldn't be shocked if he hit .225 last year as opposed to .325. I think we will see in the .250 range from burke next year, I am not gonna be creazy like some people and expect him to hit in the .270-.290 range. I would be happy as hell if he was are back up catcher if we didn't have a s***ty starter. But that is not the case now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CWSGuy406 Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 Willie Harris is not a number 2 hitter. He doesn't know how to handle the bat at all. He's a terrible sacrifice bunter. A couple of things that Willie really needs to improve on are not rolling over on his wrists, which causes him to hit weak grounders to 2b and to also improve his eye at the plate in regards to taking pitches with 2 strikes. Way too many times last year did he strikeout looking. While I don't have stats in front of me -- this is coming from an opinion of someone who watched a lot of games last season (though feel free to disagree, I'm sure you watched as many as I did, if not more): Harris was one of the better players on our team at working the count. That's just what I thought, he did a real good job of just working the count -- I rarely remember him swinging at the first pitch. JMHO... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chisoxfan14 Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 He's the only person I'd want playing 2nd base!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knightni Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 Willie can bat 9th and play 2nd base 80% of the time. If he sucks playing a whole season, a change will be made for '06. Maybe they can get someone near the trade deadline in August. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AddisonStSox Posted December 27, 2004 Share Posted December 27, 2004 I want this guy off the roster in a major way. Hopefully 2005 will be his last shot to prove he can/can't play on a daily basis. What really chaps my ass though, was his inability to steal bases last year. That was the final straw in my book. I never thought I would see any combination of Crede, Davis, Harris after 2004. Ugh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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