Is Josh Fields a bust?

[joeynach]

When Fields decides to modify his swing and get rid of that ridiculous hitch/clutch motion then he will finally realize his potential. Until then he will continue to have trouble catching up to 90+ MPH fastballs, strikeout a ton, and be lucky to continue his nice .237 avg. Its that simple.

[Kyyle23]

Its basically the same hitch that BA had, isnt it? Hands high, pitch comes in, hands drop then come back up and boom the ball is in the mitt.

[SoxFan562004]

I don't think that is what is happening.

 

I think he handles offspeed stuff well, fastballs if they are low and/or out and not too fast. So they started giving him a combo of high heat and breakers outside his swing plane. His adjustment, at first, was to try to swing harder to catch up to the inner half / up heat, but that makes it worse, AND it looks like he is trying to hit the left field foul pole.

 

Its that pre-swing bat load that is killing him, mostly. I've seen him tinker with it the last few games, to no avail yet. This is where Walker could be of help, and hopefully is.

yeah, could be, but it looks like we all agree that it's starting at the load up, which hopfeully means it's something that can be fixed and hopefully Walker will actually do it because Fields doesn't have any baseball cards I can look at the back of, so I guess that means the hitting coach is actually suppose to help him.

[3E8]

I searched pitch type and plate discipline on FanGraphs for all players with at least 100 PAs. Only Getz sees a higher percentage of fastballs than Fields (and it's less than 1% more) in terms of White Sox players. This is because Josh Fields cannot hit a fastball. If you were to only look at the percentage of fastballs for "power hitters", Fields would be near the top of this list. Fields is 4th worst in either league in terms of how often he makes contact with pitches which are in the strike zone. Fields only makes contact with 72% of pitches in the strike zone (this is quite low for a major league hitter), the next lowest on the White Sox is Jim Thome at 80%. Keep in mind Thome sees much fewer fastballs than Fields does. Fields' lack of contact is due to all the extra movement in his hands before the swing, his hitch. The hitch decreases his bat control and makes hitting fastballs belt-high or above more difficult. I expect pitchers to expoit this weakness more and more until Josh makes some kind of adjustment

[SoxFan562004]

I searched pitch type and plate discipline on FanGraphs for all players with at least 100 PAs. Only Getz sees a higher percentage of fastballs than Fields (and it's less than 1% more) in terms of White Sox players. This is because Josh Fields cannot hit a fastball. If you were to only look at the percentage of fastballs for "power hitters", Fields would be near the top of this list. Fields is 4th worst in either league in terms of how often he makes contact with pitches which are in the strike zone. Fields only makes contact with 72% of pitches in the strike zone (this is quite low for a major league hitter), the next lowest on the White Sox is Jim Thome at 80%. Keep in mind Thome sees much fewer fastballs than Fields does. Fields' lack of contact is due to all the extra movement in his hands before the swing, his hitch. The hitch decreases his bat control and makes hitting fastballs belt-high or above more difficult. I expect pitchers to expoit this weakness more and more until Josh makes some kind of adjustment

Interesting... in a best case scenario then he feasts for a bit when he makes some adjustments and the advance scouting catches up.

[Chisoxfn]

I searched pitch type and plate discipline on FanGraphs for all players with at least 100 PAs. Only Getz sees a higher percentage of fastballs than Fields (and it's less than 1% more) in terms of White Sox players. This is because Josh Fields cannot hit a fastball. If you were to only look at the percentage of fastballs for "power hitters", Fields would be near the top of this list. Fields is 4th worst in either league in terms of how often he makes contact with pitches which are in the strike zone. Fields only makes contact with 72% of pitches in the strike zone (this is quite low for a major league hitter), the next lowest on the White Sox is Jim Thome at 80%. Keep in mind Thome sees much fewer fastballs than Fields does. Fields' lack of contact is due to all the extra movement in his hands before the swing, his hitch. The hitch decreases his bat control and makes hitting fastballs belt-high or above more difficult. I expect pitchers to expoit this weakness more and more until Josh makes some kind of adjustment

Excellent post.

[NorthSideSox72]

I searched pitch type and plate discipline on FanGraphs for all players with at least 100 PAs. Only Getz sees a higher percentage of fastballs than Fields (and it's less than 1% more) in terms of White Sox players. This is because Josh Fields cannot hit a fastball. If you were to only look at the percentage of fastballs for "power hitters", Fields would be near the top of this list. Fields is 4th worst in either league in terms of how often he makes contact with pitches which are in the strike zone. Fields only makes contact with 72% of pitches in the strike zone (this is quite low for a major league hitter), the next lowest on the White Sox is Jim Thome at 80%. Keep in mind Thome sees much fewer fastballs than Fields does. Fields' lack of contact is due to all the extra movement in his hands before the swing, his hitch. The hitch decreases his bat control and makes hitting fastballs belt-high or above more difficult. I expect pitchers to expoit this weakness more and more until Josh makes some kind of adjustment

I could have sworn I just posted this, except without the stats.

 

[striker]

Is Josh Fields a bust? Outside of the early going, Josh Fields has been pitiful. His average is down, he's hitting for almost no power, not coming through in any situations, and is striking out at a record setting pace. Also, he is late on everything and struggles catching up to 90 mph fastballs. Also, it seems to me he has no clue what he's doing at the plate.

 

Personally, I've seen enough of Fields and I am willing to put the bust label on him. Maybe with a better hitting coach he can become a decent hitter. If Fields and/or Walker would smart, Fields would take this approach at the plate:

 

Back off the plate some and use a more straight away stance. Also, loosen up a bit, he seems very tense. His swing is slow, so he either needs to choke up an inch or use a lighter bat. At bat, he needs to step into the pitch and drive the ball to center field. If he does that, I think he could be much improved. However, it's easier said than done, and either Fields doesn't get it, Greg doesn't get it, or both.

 

Thoughts?

 

Why are you centering out Fields? This whole team looks like sh@$ at the plate. We got shutdown by Mark f4cking Eaton.

[scenario]

Hes not a bust yet. But kenny will have explain to everyone what excuse this year when fields does strike out 200 times. No injury this time.

 

Why is it that against all logic that people LOVE to make season projections off of small samples?

 

Sure if Fields continues to hit like he has recently he'll strike out 200 times.

 

And if what's happened so far this year continues...

 

Dotel will finish the year with a 0.00 ERA. Linebrink a 0.75, Jenks a 1.50... shoot if these trends continue, we may have the best year of any bullpen in history.

 

And Buehrle? Projects to win 23-24 games.

 

And the Blue Jays, Rangers, Reds, and Brewers will ALL win 100 games.

 

 

[Texsox]

Why are you centering out Fields? This whole team looks like sh@$ at the plate. We got shutdown by Mark f4cking Eaton.

 

Two points

 

1. It is a Josh Fields thread
2. Do not attempt to avoid the swear filter, let it do its job.

[Dick Allen]

Why is it that against all logic that people LOVE to make season projections off of small samples?

 

Sure if Fields continues to hit like he has recently he'll strike out 200 times.

 

And if what's happened so far this year continues...

 

Dotel will finish the year with a 0.00 ERA. Linebrink a 0.75, Jenks a 1.50... shoot if these trends continue, we may have the best year of any bullpen in history.

 

And Buehrle? Projects to win 23-24 games.

 

And the Blue Jays, Rangers, Reds, and Brewers will ALL win 100 games.

There is nothing to indicate Josh Fields' strikeout rate is an abberation. He's struck out 189 times in 540 major league AB and struck on 512 times in 1682 minor league AB. He might not strike out 200 times, but he's going to be up there.

[Kalapse]

Josh Fields K% (K/AB):

 

AAA:

2006: 526 PA, 29.4% (600 AB = 176.4 K)

2007: 249 PA, 29.3% (600 AB = 175.8 K)

2008: 318 PA, 35.5% (600 AB = 213.0 K)

 

MLB:

2007: 418 PA, 33.5% (600 AB = 201.0 K)

2009: 129 PA, 33.9% (600 AB = 203.4 K)

 

Current league average: 19.9%

 

AL leaders:

1.) C. Davis: 46.0%

2.) J. Thome: 37.5%

3.) C. Pena: 34.1%

4.) J. Fields: 33.9%

5.) N. Swisher: 32.7%

[scenario]

There is nothing to indicate Josh Fields' strikeout rate is an abberation. He's struck out 189 times in 540 major league AB and struck on 512 times in 1682 minor league AB. He might not strike out 200 times, but he's going to be up there.

 

I know... and I'm sorry but I get to the point I want to puke sometimes because of the "world is ending" negative posts.

 

200 strikeouts is quite an accomplishment. Consider that Jim Thome, a consummate strikeout artist over the course of his career, has never struck out 200 times in a season.

 

But Fields has a bad couple of weeks and now all the "Josh is a bust" and "he'll have an epic number of strikeout" threads come out of the woodworks.

 

I guess I'm past being surprised. It's just that I'd prefer to have some intelligent baseball conversation for a change.

 

[Texsox]

Discussing the development of a player who is/was expected to anchor 3B for a number of years seems like an important conversation to have. The fact we have posters of many opinions and whose baseball knowledge is varied, means almost any conversation will feature extremes. And even among the truly knowledgeable baseball people, there will be intelligent disagreement. Some will say an out is an out and whether by a line drive to the shortstop or a called third, ultimately it is still an out and there are only 27 you get.

[elrockinMT]

you should change that flag to "Go Crede"

 

 

I'll put my other "fanboys" to work on it

[BearSox]

I don't think that is what is happening.

 

I think he handles offspeed stuff well, fastballs if they are low and/or out and not too fast. So they started giving him a combo of high heat and breakers outside his swing plane. His adjustment, at first, was to try to swing harder to catch up to the inner half / up heat, but that makes it worse, AND it looks like he is trying to hit the left field foul pole.

 

Its that pre-swing bat load that is killing him, mostly. I've seen him tinker with it the last few games, to no avail yet. This is where Walker could be of help, and hopefully is.

It baffles me whenever I see a pitcher throw a breaking ball over the plate or away to Fields, those are the pitches he can handle.

 

As I stated in the first post, the best possible thing Fields could do is:

 

Back off the plate some and go with a more straight away stance. He seems all tense up there, so I'd try and get him to loosen up some. As for his swing. He needs to either choke up on his current bat or go with a lighter ounce. He also needs to shorten up his load. His initial load is not fluid at all, and his timing with his hand and front foot seem to be off. He also needs to step into the ball. If he is going to try and be a big home run hitter, might as well get rid of him now. He needs to focus on driving the ball to center-right center.

 

Fields definitely has the tools to be a decent player, but right now he's a bonehead at the plate and doesn't seem to have much of a clue. This is where the hitting coach comes in, and like you said, hopefully Walker can come through. This isn't something that will happen over night, but with extra batting cage sessions, more film watching, etc., this is an adjustment that could be made later on.

 

I'm all for not trying to over coach hitters and just let them naturally adjust, which seems to be Walker's main philosophy, but that doesn't work for everyone. For players like Konerko, Thome, Dye, etc., they don't need a hitting coach. They are proven vets who know what they have to do. You could throw Quentin into that category as well as he seems like the type that's always critiquing his swing and knows how to adjust by himself. It's a lot of the young guys that need the coaching the most. A lot of them have likely always been naturally great and the best player, not having to really focus on the science of the game, and they breeze along until the majors, and that's where they hit the wall.

 

It'll be interesting to see how this turns out.

[BearSox]

Why are you centering out Fields? This whole team looks like sh@$ at the plate. We got shutdown by Mark f4cking Eaton.

 

You are correct, the whole team looks like s*** at bat right now. Except right now, Fields probably is playing the worst of all them. You gotta start somewhere.

[NorthSideSox72]

You are correct, the whole team looks like s*** at bat right now. Except right now, Fields probably is playing the worst of all them. You gotta start somewhere.

Konerko still looks decent. A little light on home runs, but overall, doing reasonably well.

 

[BearSox]

Konerko still looks decent. A little light on home runs, but overall, doing reasonably well.

He's been a bit inconsistent though since his hot start. This season seems to be shaping out to how his previous seasons used to always start off. Pretty good April, not so great May, and then in June he starts to really mash the ball. Hopefully that's the case this year.

[SoxFan562004]

He's been a bit inconsistent though since his hot start. This season seems to be shaping out to how his previous seasons used to always start off. Pretty good April, not so great May, and then in June he starts to really mash the ball. Hopefully that's the case this year.

Hopefully with all the home games in June, i believe it's june, will help too.

[beck72]

I think the key question is not whether Fields is a bust. The key is whether or not Fields will be a long term fixture at 3b, and a guy the sox build around like Quentin, Alexei, Danks, Floyd. If he's a .250 hitter, with a .320 OBP, with some power, I think the sox can do better with Beckham, Viciedo, or Retherford.

[fathom]

If the Sox fall out of things in the next month and end up 10 games out of 1st, I just hope they give Fields the rest of the season to show what he can do at the plate. Benching him for a day or two is ok, but when your team is not going to compete for the AL Central, you have to get some young guys into the lineup to see if they can be counted on the following year.

[Chisoxfn]

If the Sox fall out of things in the next month and end up 10 games out of 1st, I just hope they give Fields the rest of the season to show what he can do at the plate. Benching him for a day or two is ok, but when your team is not going to compete for the AL Central, you have to get some young guys into the lineup to see if they can be counted on the following year.

I still think the best strategy is turning Fields to a team in need of a 3rd baseman that has a nice looking pitching prospect that is still raw or has some question-marks but upside. Maybe even a failed first round selection or something along those lines.

[fathom]

I still think the best strategy is turning Fields to a team in need of a 3rd baseman that has a nice looking pitching prospect that is still raw or has some question-marks but upside. Maybe even a failed first round selection or something along those lines.

 

To be honest, I don't think he has any value. If scouts know about his fastball weakness, then so would GMs that would be considering trading him.

[iamshack]

To be honest, I don't think he has any value. If scouts know about his fastball weakness, then so would GMs that would be considering trading him.

 

He has some value. Not a ton, but enough perhaps to acquire a guy with a nice arm that just hasn't put things together for whatever reason. Best case would probably be to deal him for a pitcher with a similar-type pedigree...

 

I mean, we were able to get a guy with Matt Thornton's arm for Joe Borchard, I think we could possibly get a similar kind of guy.

 

Of course, Bill Bavasi is no long an MLB GM. Rats.