BA, Molina(?) make the team (link)

[NorthSideSox72]

Assuming Hall can indeed come back at 80-90% by May, then the Molina problem ultimately only effects the team in 5 to 8 games, plus maybe a couple where Hall would have PH/1B or whatever. Maybe, maybe, we lose one or two of those games due to lacking that one player. So as long as Hall is back in May per the latest news, I think this is not a HUGE difference-maker. If he's out the whole season, well, that's a different story. But ultimately our pitching staff will still be the biggest factor.

 

This is not just Greg Walkers fault. This is a wholesale organizational issue. We generate power hitters with our system. We look for athletic football types, who can mash the ball. Put a bat in their hands, and try to get the most power out of their swing. We have seen hitter after hitter come up from the system with the same exact hole in their swing that gets exploited the minute they start to face good major league pitching. Long looping swings that will crush a fastball on the inner half, but get exposed on sliders away, the ball low and away. Watch how a lot of teams pitch us, they target low and away. Now the Johans, and CC's of the world will go after our team. But the crappy 7 ERA pitcher will paint low and away, and hope that the offense tries to pull the ball. Usually resulting in a groundout to the pull side of the field. Teams like the Twins hit both lefties and righties well because they have a more line drive approach. They put the ball in play with authority more. Yes we will bomb them into the stone age when it comes to power. It would be nice if we instructed our hitters on gap to gap hitting. A nice level swing, balance focusing on solid strong contact. It seems however we are looking more for clearing our hips, getting total extension and elevating the ball for power. Which can be effective, if you dont cheat on the pitch a bit. I think a lot of our hitter cheat a bit, and get themselves caught on the outside pitch. This is not a statement on hitting to the right side. This is a statement on solid hitting. If the ball is center cut, by all means pull it. If the ball is low and away, then drive it up the middle or to right by letting the ball get deeper into the swing. People think when I talk gap to gap that I am talking about slap hitting to the 2nd baseman. And that isnt true. Its an approach of level line drive like the twins teach their hitters. Walker the same man that they had fired before, and had fired before that. They are all the same hitting coach. This one is a bit more affable.

 

I would love to see KW get the minors back to instruction. Replace our current instructors with someone who teaches a fundamentally sound swing. That can help correct hitches in the swing, or bad mechanics. Not someone who is going to turn something that isnt a good hitter into a batting title holder. But someone who can teach our talented young players how to get the bat on the ball.

 

The sad thing is that our offense could be so good that no one could shut it down, except for the top 1% pitching in baseball. However as we have seen our season will be the tale of 2 halves. The first half when we look unbeatable, and the 2nd when the collar gets tight and the pitchers start to paint the corners more.

 

Our season will ride on our pitching. If our pitching throws strikes, and forces the issue we will be in a good state. If our hitters can take some pitches, get into some counts, and then make good selections on which pitch to drive and which pitch to hit we will be a great team.

 

Its all up to how they compete on the field. I am hoping that our situational hitting improves. Our hitters get on for our thumpers, and our thumpers drive them in.

 

Great post, agreed all-around.

 

Trivia: for those who think Walker might be able to help some of our lefties hit lefties, keep this in mind... Walker is a career .224 hitter against LHP (.274 vs RHP, a 50 point difference). Seems he struggled with that himself, with that sweeping swing he had.

[Hideaway Lights]

let's say that the backup catcher were to make 35 starts this season (a fairly reasonable assumption).

 

If Hall batted .280, would everyone agree that would be a great season out of him? That's pretty much where I put the highest batting average he would have.

 

Now say that his various replacements bat .200 at the back up catcher position, pretty much the lowest we can reasonably expect.

 

You guys do realize that is a difference of just 11 hits, right?

 

Not sure how that translates into 5-6 less wins for some of you...

 

In any case, I've been saying this is a 3rd or 4th place club all offseason/preseason (since the Garcia trade) so I'm certainly not changing my tune at this point.

[Balta1701]

I'll tell you what I think's not quite right: the pitching staff. If I saw a fastball hit 93 mph this spring, I wouldn't give a crap about Eduardo Perez. But seeing as our pitching staff shows no signs of turning over a new leaf, these little moves are amplified. Right now I'm inches away from panicking about our rotation, particularly Buehrle who appears to have zero stuff and still gets the ball up.

There we go. That's what's giving me the bad feeling as well. None of the 5th starter candidates really stepped up and impressed the way BMac did 2 years ago in ST. Even Danks has looked hittable, even if he looked good compared to Floyd and Haeger. Garland has arm issues, MB is being knocked around like he was in the 2nd half of last year, Vazquez is still totally hit and miss, Jose hopefully is looking better, but 3 out of the 5 guys have ERA's between 8.5 and 9. And on top of that, Jenks and MMac have ERA's hanging out at around 9.

 

Who would have thought that the only pitcher who's performance this ST excited me was the man, the myth, the Legend of Boone Logan?

 

And even beyond that, I'm still worried about our defense, since it sure looks like we've taken almost no steps to improve over last year beyond taking Mack out of CF. Pods is still in LF despite having a better defensive option, and Anderson could be seeing even fewer games out there. Combine that with everyone being a year older, and Crede's back, and yeesh.

 

I hope these pitchers have just been screwing with our minds this ST. The offense will be ok even without Hall, but we need to get some pitching out of these guys.

[Vance Law]

Im feeling wins in the 70's for this team with how we are now.

 

The difference in production between Molina and Widger/Alomar just cost us 20 games, apparently.

 

the problem is they may be required to score even more runs than last season.

 

If you assume that is the case, that overall the pitching will be worse than their 2006 4.61 ERA, then nothing the offense does matters anyway. A team with pitching that poor won't go to the playoffs.

[Hideaway Lights]

I'm really confused as to how people who were confident going into this spring training with gavin floyd or danks as a fifth starter, knowing they would probably be inconsistent as hell to start off, are suddenly now changing their season long expectations

[witesoxfan]

I'm really confused as to how people who were confident going into this spring training with gavin floyd or danks as a fifth starter, knowing they would probably be inconsistent as hell to start off, are suddenly now changing their season long expectations

 

I'm not sure it was the 5th starter that has made people change their minds nearly as much as having Pods-Erstad at the top of the order along with velocity being down all around camp. Those are much bigger factors to me than the 5th starter, and I've said just as much in the past.

[Jenksismyhero]

I'm really confused as to how people who were confident going into this spring training with gavin floyd or danks as a fifth starter, knowing they would probably be inconsistent as hell to start off, are suddenly now changing their season long expectations

 

 

I thought last year was a fluke and that this year they'd turn it around. But thus far, everyone is being hit and hit hard. I understand it's spring training but we're into week three with zero improvement. I'm beginning to get nervous myself.

[Balta1701]

I'm really confused as to how people who were confident going into this spring training with gavin floyd or danks as a fifth starter, knowing they would probably be inconsistent as hell to start off, are suddenly now changing their season long expectations

I'm less worried about our 5th starter performing at 5th starter levels than I am about our 1-4 starters performing at 1-4 starter levels.

[greg775]

If we have fifth starter problems this season, we should want KW's head for getting

rid of Freddie.

If this Molina guy is an automatic out, we're going to be hurting big time when he plays.

I say catch AJ 130 games even against lefties.

Can he handle 130?

[Balta1701]

If we have fifth starter problems this season, we should want KW's head for getting

rid of Freddie.

If this Molina guy is an automatic out, we're going to be hurting big time when he plays.

I say catch AJ 130 games even against lefties.

Can he handle 130?

AJ played in 140 games last year. The reason everyone is so concerned about this is 2 fold...AJ was bad against lefties, and AJ clearly tired down the stretch and his numbers went way down.

[bjm676]

So we are assuming then that Hall rehabbing his shoulder will not bring him back in May/June and he'll end up opting for surgery?

 

I've only seen Molina play in ST, so I can't really judge him. I never knew he was that terrible. So bad that we would rather have WIKI GONZALEZ.

 

I'll wait to see how everything pans out before making any judgements.

Edited March 28, 2007 by robinventura23

[Vance Law]

So we are assuming then that Hall rehabbing his shoulder will not bring him back in May/June and he'll end up opting for surgery?

 

I've only seen Molina play in ST, so I can't really judge him. I never knew he was that terrible. So bad that we would rather have WIKI GONZALEZ.

 

I'll wait to see how everything pans out before making any judgements.

 

We would pick up another catcher if Hall can't come back. We dropped our backup last year and picked up a new one- why would we not do the same, when we've had to stick a minor leaguer in there for about 7 games.

[The Ginger Kid]

http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/news/artic...sp&c_id=cws

 

Additionally, and unsurprisingly, Perez was released and Terrero sent down. THe article says KW tried to make several moves to free up a space for PErez, but nothing worked out.

 

Glad to see Ozzie changed his mind about BA going to Charlotte if he wasn't starting. He'll get plenty of PT but shouldn't be as much of a liability as last season. Plus he's a great late inning defensive sub.

[shoota]

Someone remind me what happened to Jamie Burke.

[Balta1701]

Someone remind me what happened to Jamie Burke.

He's Seattle's backup catcher.

[shoota]

He's Seattle's backup catcher.

 

Was he traded? Did he become a minor league FA?

[greg775]

Wow balta, as usual thanks for the stat.

AJ played in 140 games?

Well, he can do it again.

As far as him not hitting lefties, he's not as bad as Thome and Pods is he?

Our lineup should suck it up and focus more when we face the lefties of our division

this year.

We need to get on them early and knock them up and out of the game before they

get on a roll.

This may be blasphemous, but guys like Thome should confound the shift and just try to

get bat on ball against lefties and fricking get on base.

Pods and AJ too.

Just stroke a single or take a walk.

None of these power swings vs. lefties when you are a lefty.

Am I off base here???

[witesoxfan]

Wow balta, as usual thanks for the stat.

AJ played in 140 games?

Well, he can do it again.

As far as him not hitting lefties, he's not as bad as Thome and Pods is he?

Our lineup should suck it up and focus more when we face the lefties of our division

this year.

We need to get on them early and knock them up and out of the game before they

get on a roll.

This may be blasphemous, but guys like Thome should confound the shift and just try to

get bat on ball against lefties and fricking get on base.

Pods and AJ too.

Just stroke a single or take a walk.

None of these power swings vs. lefties when you are a lefty.

Am I off base here???

 

AJ really shouldn't play 140 games - due to that ridiculous workload, he was gassed by August. He had a solid September, but nothing earth shattering.

 

August is really when the Sox need to bear down as a team, because it's been August the last 3 years where the team has just completely tanked. Coincidentally - or not - Ozzie's managed the White Sox 3 years. Think it may have something to do with him running the starting pitching out there for 7-9 innings every single night and not using his bullpen? Think it's maybe why the bullpen is rusty come August? Think Ozzie never giving the big guns consistent rest throughout the previous 4 months is why they start to slow down, and the bench players are mediocre? Yeah, I'd venture to guess it has something to do with that.

 

And to answer your questions about lefties, Pierzynski did try and just get singles last year against lefties, hence his .270 average, 38 hits, and 5 XBH's against lefties. He really wasn't looking to do a lot with the ball, mainly just get it in play. Thome tried to kill the ball, but that's Thome being Thome. However, even in hitting .236 against lefties last year, Thome still got on at a .354 clip, so he was getting on base at a very productive clip, he just was never putting the ball in play. Podsednik, as opposed to those other two, just flat out sucks against lefties. He got about 151 PA's against LHP, and put up a .562 OPS. If I had to suggest something, I'd say have him get about 130 fewer PA's against LHP this year and the team will be a bit better. He'll likely be a little better this year, but I wouldn't bank on it.

 

so no, you're not off-base at all, but what you're suggesting is stuff the guys are already doing. It would just be nice if the Sox had a couple of better options in those situations.

[ScottyDo]

August is really when the Sox need to bear down as a team, because it's been August the last 3 years where the team has just completely tanked. Coincidentally - or not - Ozzie's managed the White Sox 3 years. Think it may have something to do with him running the starting pitching out there for 7-9 innings every single night and not using his bullpen? Think it's maybe why the bullpen is rusty come August? Think Ozzie never giving the big guns consistent rest throughout the previous 4 months is why they start to slow down, and the bench players are mediocre? Yeah, I'd venture to guess it has something to do with that.

well previous to ozzie's tenure, the sox were out of the running by june every year save one.

[witesoxfan]

well previous to ozzie's tenure, the sox were out of the running by june every year save one.

 

and in every year, including the one, they turned it on in the second half rather than be flat because that's the style of manager he was.

 

I'm not sure if it's better to get out to a huge lead and hope you can put on cruise control, or hope you can stay within it and then get hot in the second half. I think it'd probably be better if you took like a combination of the two, where you get out to a huge lead and then you build upon that in the second half, but that's idealistic. Or at the very least, get a lead and don't give it up.

 

The team needs to play consistent ball, and if they do, they'll be a good team. A good team with a horrendous 1-2, but a good team nonetheless.

[RockRaines]

Where does Molina rank on the all-time worst players to make the Sox out of Spring Training?

Somewhere behind Chris Widger

[witesoxfan]

Somewhere behind Chris Widger

 

circa 2006

 

Dan Wright was probably worse too, though his ERA may not show it

[Kalapse]

Just for the record here are the final spring numbers for the 3 outfielders fighting for starting spots.

 

           AB   R   H  2B  3B  HR  RBI  TB  BB  SO  SB  CS  AVG   OBP   SLG   OPS   	

PLAYER A:  80  10  24  4   0   1    8   31  4   14  2   0  .300  .329  .388  .717
 

PLAYER B:  52  6   16  2   0   2    5   24  8   8   2   0  .308  .393  .462  .855
 

PLAYER C:  19  2   4   0   0   0    1   4   3   0   2   2  .211  .304  .211  .515