5 Reasons to be Optimistic

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

So yesterday after the game, Chuck Garfien was reading off the white sox lineups batting averages. I noticed outside of Swisher and Buehrle of coarse, they all were in the .260-.300 range. I was suprised and looked it up online. Over the past 30 days, our team batting average is .301. Damn.

[witesoxfan]

So yesterday after the game, Chuck Garfien was reading off the white sox lineups batting averages. I noticed outside of Swisher and Buehrle of coarse, they all were in the .260-.300 range. I was suprised and looked it up online. Over the past 30 days, our team batting average is .301. Damn.

 

Thome's still hitting .230 and Konerko's at a whopping .215, but yeah they're starting to hit well. Average isn't everything of course, but the power is coming with it. Swish is almost up to .240 now a days too and is basically a league average player while he continues his hot hitting. I'd imagine he'll still end the year with 20-25 homers and a very good on base percentage.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

Thome's still hitting .230 and Konerko's at a whopping .215, but yeah they're starting to hit well. Average isn't everything of course, but the power is coming with it. Swish is almost up to .240 now a days too and is basically a league average player while he continues his hot hitting. I'd imagine he'll still end the year with 20-25 homers and a very good on base percentage.

 

Konerko and Thome's paltry averages are even more encouraging to that stat. They are obviously going to hit better than what they are now. I expect them both to be at around 250-260 at the lowest. I think we have a real good chance at sustaining at least a .290 team BA the rest of the season. If we do that, it will be huge considering the more it heats up, the more dingers at the Cell.

[chitownsportsfan]

It was a very good article.. puts many things into perspective. Our sluggers and pitching have the ability to put together 2 or 3 more 7/8 game winning streaks. However when we dont hit, we can easily lose 3 in a row. When the Sox runs into good pitching, it starts to become more difficult to score runs. This team needs to finally start thinking about manufacturing runs every once in awhile. Unfortanately we really dont have too many players to do such a thing. This is why i want KW to make a push for Willy Taveras. His average maybe a little down this year, but he has 35 SBs and he would change the entire look of our team. Where would he play? Thats the problem, we have no room for him. However, if Thome continues to struggle, i would seriously consider trading him before his option kicks in for next year. Teams like Boston, Angels, or even the Rays could be looking for a DH down the road. This team has pleanty of power w/o Thome in the lineup: Quentin 17HR, Dye 16HR, Crede 15HR, Konerko 8HR, Swisher 8HR. With Taveras leading off a lineup such as this can actually manufacture some runs and switch things up a little bit.

Willy Taveras CF

Orlando Cabrera SS

Carlos Quentin LF

Jermaine Dye RF/ DH

Paul Konerko DH/1B

AJ Pierzynski C

Nick Swisher 1B/RF

Joe Crede 3B

Alexei Ramirez SS

 

Willy Taveras makes Uribe look like Ty Cobb. Career OPS+ of 75 and 55 (FIFTY f***ING FIVE!) so far this year. I don't care is he steals 100 bases, dude can't hit for s***. He is getting on base 29% of the time, seriously, he sucks. Replacing Thome with Taveras would be disastrous.

[chitownsportsfan]

If I were Jim Thome, I'd blow up Soxtalk for getting on my case when I've been the 4th best hitter for the White Sox.

 

DO YOU PEOPLE NOT WATCH GAMES OR LOOK AT NUMBERS? no, Jim Thome just strikes out a lot and he's kinda ugly and he's old so therefore he must suck

 

 

Thank god, some sanity here. Thome will likely finish the year with around 30 homers and around a 250/350/490 line, which is about A BILLION TIMES MORE production than Willy Taveras is going to give us. I exagerate, but come on people!

[gosox41]

So yesterday after the game, Chuck Garfien was reading off the white sox lineups batting averages. I noticed outside of Swisher and Buehrle of coarse, they all were in the .260-.300 range. I was suprised and looked it up online. Over the past 30 days, our team batting average is .301. Damn.

 

Really? I guess that includes the 3 games against Pitt and that one week they crushed the ball because it doesn't feel like they're hitting that well.

 

[VAfan]

I thought the 5 points in the original article were fairly solid. You could add to them the fact that we're due for more home games than road games, which undervalues our current record.

 

But we're certainly no shoe-in here. I don't think the Twins will up and steal it. They're playing well in interleague play, but when they return to the AL, I expect them to fall back. Liriano could help, but we just pounded the hell out of the rest of their staff when they were here. And, even though the rest of our games against them are in Minnesota, after we crushed them, I expect no worse than a split.

 

The team to be concerned about is the Tigers. We're going to have to get to at least 90 wins to hold them off, I think.

[witesoxfan]

Thank god, some sanity here. Thome will likely finish the year with around 30 homers and around a 250/350/490 line, which is about A BILLION TIMES MORE production than Willy Taveras is going to give us. I exagerate, but come on people!

 

Crazy thing is I wouldn't mind bringing in Willy Taveras, but anybody who wants to give him the most at bats and replace Swisher/Anderson/Wise in CF with that is ridiculous. Taveras is a 4th outfielder at best right now. Fast as hell, steals bases, can do a bit of situational bunting, can play all 3 outfield positions, and he's got a cannon. Pretty much every characteristic of a 4th outfielder.