Is Scotty Pods underrated?

[greg775]

I watched Saturday's game and caught myself wondering why I dislike

Pods so much. His batting average isn't horrific and he swipes bases.

He takes pitches and seems to have a clue at the plate.

So is he underrated? Do you all like him and think he should be

our leadoff hitter the next couple seasons? Or do you find yourself

like me disliking the guy for some reason?

[knightni]

He sucks vs lefties and can't play D.

[The Ginger Kid]

He sucks vs lefties and can't play D.

couldn't disagree more - he's rarely afforded the chance to bat against lefties and his D isn't great but it doesn't suck as bad as some would like to think. Even more important, he's the spark that makes this team go. We win 75% of the time he gets a hit.

[BobDylan]

I watched Saturday's game and caught myself wondering why I dislike

Pods so much. His batting average isn't horrific and he swipes bases.

He takes pitches and seems to have a clue at the plate.

So is he underrated? Do you all like him and think he should be

our leadoff hitter the next couple seasons? Or do you find yourself

like me disliking the guy for some reason?

 

I have a feeling that I'll be one of the few that will support Podsednik here. But alike many players in a White Sox uniform, he's gotten a lot of spiff from SoxTalkers for what I see as little reason. He's not having the season he had last year, but his numbers aren't far off. He's still one of the leagues top run scorers (has scored 73 runs this season compared to only 80 last year) and base stealers (31). And for all the flack he'll get for his on base percentage, it's only 7 points lower than last season.

 

He's been pretty much worthless against left-handers this year (a dismal .239 hitter in 2006, he hit .330 against LHP in 2005), but some of that drop off should be nailed on Iguchi, who is hitting .223 against left handed pitching despite a clear advantage from the other side of the plate. Gooch has dropped from .274 in '05. Protection may be overrated at the top of the order, but it may also be undervalued at the same time. The Podsednik-Gooch duo we had last season is no where as good this season. I haven't spoken up and I probably won't get much support in this argument, but Iguchi deserves just as much flack as Podsednik does. (Don't tell me about his .284 average, not with the thunder behind him.)

 

Most will say that Podsednik caused "havoc" on the basepaths last year and hasn't done that this year. I won't dispute that. But he doesn't have that same pressure to perform at that type of level, not when you insert Jim Thome into the line-up. Also, the amount of times Gooch has fouled a ball of with Scotty on the move, or the amount of times Gooch has failed to bunt him over has been highly overlooked. You can also reason that teams took a different approach to Podsenik on the basepaths this season: keep the pressure on the hitters and hold him like you would any other base stealer.

 

And I really don't think his fielding has been that bad.

Edited August 6, 2006 by BobDylan

[rangercal]

he is definately underrated around these parts.

[DBAHO]

couldn't disagree more - he's rarely afforded the chance to bat against lefties and his D isn't great but it doesn't suck as bad as some would like to think. Even more important, he's the spark that makes this team go. We win 75% of the time he gets a hit.

Last season Pods actually had a very good stat line against lefties, this season, he's batting .093 worse against them.

 

His D has deteoriated this season I would have thought. We all knew last season he didn't get good reads or jumps on the ball, but with his speed he could still catch up to the ball. Now that he's a year older and he may have lost a step or two, he can't depend on catching up to the ball as much as he used to.

 

Last season he had 4.2 Win Shares on Defense, this season only 1.4.

 

At least this season though, he's doing a MUCH better job at hitting with RISP.

[Jordan4life_2007]

This is gonna be a very LONG thread.

 

I've made my feelings known on Pods. Is he great? Hell no. Is he good? He can be very good at times. Overall: He's a solid player who, for the most part, does what this particular team needs him to do. Also, his defense has been much, much better of late. It was horrific for a while there.

[RME JICO]

Pods has been somewhat disappointing this year and his play has been inconsistent, but it is hard to ignore the fact that the Sox win a ton of games when he gets a hit or swipes a base. It may just be a coincidence, but I doubt it.

 

I feel that the outcome of the season will determine if the Sox keep Pods.

[S720]

You want to know why? I'll tell you why!

 

Please be honest. It's not his solid offense or average defense. It's his wife, Lisa Dergan, that all of us are jealous of him. This is the cause of him being underrated.

[Al Lopez's Ghost]

His defense has been awful, and for the most part, he hasn't been the disruptive force this year that he was until August last year. You can't forget however that he had a huge role in our postseason, so it's fair to hope he can elevate his game in the pressure games we have left.

 

I'd still be surprised if he's our leftfielder next season.

[beck72]

I don't think Pods is underrated. There are good reasons why the sox platoon pods with Ozuna, and have Mack replace him in LF late in games [it hasn't happened a lot, but enough to show how the sox feel about his defense]. At first I thought it was just to save Pods' legs for late in the year. But Pods is a near automatic out vs LHP. And his defense doesn't justify putting him out there over Ozuna.

 

I do give Pods credit for coming on as of late, getting some big hits with runners on. Hopefully that continues through October. The sox will need either Pods or Iguchi to get on base for the 3-5 hitters to drive in.

 

FWIW, I do think the sox will try and upgrade at leadoff next yr, and Pods could be dealt in the offseason.

[DBAHO]

FWIW, I do think the sox will try and upgrade at leadoff next yr, and Pods could be dealt in the offseason.

Yeah he'll be arbitration eligible and he'll make a lot of sense for quite a few NL teams you would have thought, so he'll have some value.

 

A team like Pittsburgh that really needs a leadoff hitter could be interested in him for example, and they've got some good young SP that we would definitely be interested in.

[beck72]

Yeah he'll be arbitration eligible and he'll make a lot of sense for quite a few NL teams you would have thought, so he'll have some value.

 

A team like Pittsburgh that really needs a leadoff hitter could be interested in him for example, and they've got some good young SP that we would definitely be interested in.

 

I wouldn't expect a team to overpay for Pods like the Cubs did for Pierre. But he'll have some value. A team like the Marlins might be interested as well, and have a lot of young talent to trade. Weren't they mentioned in the Soriano talks?

[DBAHO]

I wouldn't expect a team to overpay for Pods like the Cubs did for Pierre. But he'll have some value. A team like the Marlins might be interested as well, and have a lot of young talent to trade. Weren't they mentioned in the Soriano talks?

Yeah they were. Thing is they have Willingham at LF and Hermida at RF, so Pods would have to play CF for them which at Pro Player Stadium would be a bad, bad idea.

[beck72]

Yeah they were. Thing is they have Willingham at LF and Hermida at RF, so Pods would have to play CF for them which at Pro Player Stadium would be a bad, bad idea.

Well they have Alfredo Amezaga playing CF now, of the infield Amezaga's. Lf or CF, the Marlins need a leadoff hitter. Hanley Ramirez for them isn't one.

[gosox41]

I watched Saturday's game and caught myself wondering why I dislike

Pods so much. His batting average isn't horrific and he swipes bases.

He takes pitches and seems to have a clue at the plate.

So is he underrated? Do you all like him and think he should be

our leadoff hitter the next couple seasons? Or do you find yourself

like me disliking the guy for some reason?

 

Scotty is good for one thing--stealing bases. If he's not stealing he's useless. His OBP isn't that good. He has power. His defense is below average.

 

IMHO, he should try to bunt for hits more because with his speed he could beat a lot of them out. He could be a better bunter.

 

 

Bob

[Felix]

Scotty is good for one thing--stealing bases. If he's not stealing he's useless. His OBP isn't that good. He has power. His defense is below average.

 

IMHO, he should try to bunt for hits more because with his speed he could beat a lot of them out. He could be a better bunter.

Bob

If he's not stealing, he's useless? No. If he's not stealing, then whoever is making the decision to keep him at first is smart. With Iguchi, Thome, Konerko and Dye coming up behind him, he shouldn't be risking a stolen base. Pods is incredibly underrated around these parts, but thats not saying he's a superstar. His defense has had some horrible moments this year, including the most recent misjudging of a linedrive/flyball (whatever you want to call it), but as of late (apart from the previously mentioned misjudged ball), it hasn't been that bad. He does an excellent job making a pitcher work and seeing tons of pitches, and is a great leadoff hitter when he's hot.

 

His season has been statistically better than it was last year since he's shown much more power, but people are hating on him because his stolen bases are down (even though he's still projected to have 49 at the seasons end, and he's still stealing at a similar rate as last year, 71%).

[That funky motion]

I think his O is fine. The only thing I dont like is that he takes a lot of #3rd strike looking and they all see right down the middle of the plate. I do like that he does see a lot of pitches though, I just wish he would hit the ball the other way more. He used to slap the ball down the 3rd base line a lot last year, not so much this year.

 

His D is what pisses me off! I can live with the bad jumps, its the balls that go in and out of glove that piss me off. I agree that when he get on, this team looks a hell of a lot better.

[SkokieSox]

He sucks vs lefties and can't play D.

Isn't he hitting lefties well this year???

[southsideirish71]

Anyone that thinks that Pods defense is passable needs to reassess what they think passable is. We all knew he had a noodle arm and used his speed to get over his bad jumps. But this year he is dropping fly balls. This year he plays on the warning track and his speed is not the same, so he winds up coming up a dollar late on every duck snort that should be catchable. Just look at the Royals series where the ball skirted to the fence because Pods misjudged a ball. His defense is terrible. No question.

[Dick Allen]

Pods is a below average major league LF. There is no better way to describe his defense other than brutal. He apparently has zero confidence out there because he rarely goes aggressively after balls. How many times do you see him tip toeing to a ball that he doesn't even pick up until the batter is just about at second base? His steals are nice, but he has been picked off several times and made a lot of boneheaded baserunning decisions. Yesterdays' in the first didn't cost the Sox a run, but it easily could have. He has little power, and Ks frequently. You could do worse, but you also could do a lot better than Pods.

[G&T]

Isn't he hitting lefties well this year???

 

He's hitting .230 against lefties this year in 118 AB's. Last year, however, he hit .330 in only 100 AB's. I don't really know what to say about these stats other than he doesn't play much against lefties.

[Kalapse]

I'm just going to ask one simple question and I hope I can phrase it right.

 

The main point people make when defending Scott Podsednik is that he is the spark plug to the offense and that when he gets on base/swipes bags the team has a habit of winning those games. Now if the Sox were to say replace Podsednik with any of these players wouldn't they produce the same result (offensive sparkplug) except much more frequently while providing other valuable services?

 

I understand the rebuttal to this argument;

1.) We do not have any of those guys, Pods is the best option we have

2.) It would be nearly impossible to acquire most of those players . . . and such.

 

I'm not advocating either of these because that would be relatively foolish at this point in time seeing how it's August 6th. All I'm saying is when Scott Podsednik does do his job as a leadoff hitter (taking pitches, not striking out looking, getting on base, stealing bases), the team wins, however he does not do this nearly enough and the rest of his skills are severly lacking, so couldn't the Sox replace Podsednik with dozens of other players (plenty of whom will be available this offseason) and have them provide that same spark except more frequently?

 

Just one quick thing to help illustrate my point. If say the Sox replaced Podsednik right now with Jerry Owens wouldn't he provide an offensive spark every once in awhile? When he's getting on base and stealing bases I'm sure the team would be pretty damn successful. Of course he wouldn't provide this spark as frequently as Podsednik but at the same time there's a good amount of players out there who could spark a lineup on a much more consistent basis than Pods does.

[Milkman delivers]

I'm just going to ask one simple question and I hope I can phrase it right.

 

The main point people make when defending Scott Podsednik is that he is the spark plug to the offense and that when he gets on base/swipes bags the team has a habit of winning those games. Now if the Sox were to say replace Podsednik with any of these players wouldn't they produce the same result (offensive sparkplug) except much more frequently while providing other valuable services?

 

I understand the rebuttal to this argument;

1.) We do not have any of those guys, Pods is the best option we have

2.) It would be nearly impossible to acquire most of those players . . . and such.

 

I'm not advocating either of these because that would be relatively foolish at this point in time seeing how it's August 6th. All I'm saying is when Scott Podsednik does do his job as a leadoff hitter (taking pitches, not striking out looking, getting on base, stealing bases), the team wins, however he does not do this nearly enough and the rest of his skills are severly lacking, so couldn't the Sox replace Podsednik with dozens of other players (plenty of whom will be available this offseason) and have them provide that same spark except more frequently?

 

Just one quick thing to help illustrate this. If say the Sox replaced Podsednik right now with Jerry Owens wouldn't he provide an offensive spark every once in awhile? When he's getting on base and stealing bases I'm sure the team would be pretty damn successful. Of course he wouldn't provide this spark as frequently as Podsednik but at the same time there's a good amount of players out there who could spark a lineup on a much more consistent basis than Pods does.

 

Ha, exactly.

 

BUT THE CHEMISTRY!!

[SABR Sox]

I watched Saturday's game and caught myself wondering why I dislike

Pods so much. His batting average isn't horrific and he swipes bases.

He takes pitches and seems to have a clue at the plate.

So is he underrated? Do you all like him and think he should be

our leadoff hitter the next couple seasons? Or do you find yourself

like me disliking the guy for some reason?

 

Yea mean Overrated. Yes and to the fullest extent.