Josh Fields

[BearSox]

That's scary that Liefer put up those kind of numbers.

He sucked.

Hopefully Josh will be a Sox lifer not a Liefer.

How dare you insult liefy like that... shame on you. Liefer is a sox lifer to me!

[Jeremy]

And in terms of walks...we are right around the MLB "Average" level. And that's still with a guy like Erstad and a guy like Uribe getting a bunch of at bats. And Gonzalez. And Cintron.

 

Even if all we do is replace some of that grindy garbage...that alone could improve those #'s.

 

Wow. We're actually 10th in walks which is much higher than I expected considering that we're 29th in OBP. I guess a lot of the problem has just been our batting average. That gives me some rare optimism for next season since batting average fluctuates more from season to season than walk rate. Still, as you suggested, we still have a lot of room to improve our walk rate since we have a number of players that never walk. Also, in all honesty, I think increasing the number of walks a team gets is more beneficial than decreasing a team's strikeouts so I'd probably always favor adding players who walk over players who don't strikeout, even for a team that was first in the league in walks and dead last in strikeouts.

[Colorado Sox Fan]

I like the intangibles I see from Fields. I'm not a stat guy. I don't pay a lot of attention to OPS, VORP, JFK, LSD or any of your other acronyms. What I like is he's had quite a few meaningful hits late in games. A lot of players hit HRs when the game's a blowout one way or another. Seems to drive in runs in key spots and plays with some intelligence. He does need to cut down on the strikeouts.

 

I saw something I liked in the KC game last night. In the first inning, he hit the fly to CF and instead of standing there and watching the ball like 99% of Major Leaguers do these days, he ran hard and turned the hit into a double. Uribe probably would have watched it all the way and been thrown out at first.

 

There's a lot of room for improvement, but I like his game. I don't think he's a Jeff Liefer, who complained about not getting playing time while with the Sox, and then when he was given a chance elsewhere, he proved that the Sox were right.

[witesoxfan]

I don't pay a lot of attention to...LSD or any of your other acronyms.

 

Dock Ellis is the greatest.

[SpringfieldFan]

Good grief, talk about a tough crowd. The guy's got 20 home runs in half a rookie season, and one would think he is doomed. Just as pitchers will likely adjust to him, so too will he likely adjust to them. Leave the future to the future and enjoy what he has already done; its one of the few bright spots lately.

 

SFF

[Kalapse]

Good grief, talk about a tough crowd. The guy's got 20 home runs in half a rookie season, and one would think he is doomed. Just as pitchers will likely adjust to him, so too will he likely adjust to them. Leave the future to the future and enjoy what he has already done; its one of the few bright spots lately.

 

SFF

65-70% of a rookie season.

[Balta1701]

65-70% of a rookie season.

340 at bats. If a full season is 550 to 600 AB's, then he's somewhere between 56 and 62% of a full season so far to get those 20 hr's.

[Kalapse]

340 at bats. If a full season is 550 to 600 AB's, then he's somewhere between 56 and 62% of a full season so far to get those 20 hr's.

He's up to 375 PA unless he's hitting at the top of the order next season I don't see him getting any more than 600 PA. 375/600 = 62.5%. That's the maximum number of PA IMO. So he's probably somwhere between 62-65% right now.