What will it take..

[TitoMB345]

What do you think? I'm torn between 2 and 4.

Edited April 10, 2010 by TitoMB

[nickofypres]

Walkers never getting axed. The Sox are loyal to a fault. Not a bad thing in most cases, but in regards to Walker it is. It really is.

[Quin]

I went with option number 4, it seems the most logical.

[Dick Allen]

Teahen, Jones, Kotsay,Pierre,..........these guys are all HOF quality hitters at this point in their careers. The fact that they haven't hit well during the season's first 4 games is ample proof Greg Walker is a good and needs to be fired immediately.

 

Yet another ridiculous thread.

[DBAHO]

Teahen, Jones, Kotsay,Pierre,..........these guys are all HOF quality hitters at this point in their careers. The fact that they haven't hit well during the season's first 4 games is ample proof Greg Walker is a good and needs to be fired immediately.

 

Yet another ridiculous thread.

Sox lose, score less than 5 runs, what's the simple equation, blame Walker.

 

FWIW, I don't think Walker goes before Ozzie or KW for that matter. They've stuck by him with the good, and mainly the bad, and I can't see that changing anytime soon. It is what it is.

[Dick Allen]

Sox lose, score less than 5 runs, what's the simple equation, blame Walker.

 

FWIW, I don't think Walker goes before Ozzie or KW for that matter. They've stuck by him with the good, and mainly the bad, and I can't see that changing anytime soon. It is what it is.

The Sox have scored 15 runs in 4 games. Greg Walker has to go. The Sox should have paid up big for Rudy Jaramillo. He has the Cubs scoring 13 runs in 4 games. If guys aren't hitting, its clearly the hitting coach's fault. There is no way the White Sox shouldn't have a .300 team batting average unless Greg Walker is incompetent. He clearly is. Mark Teahen has been an All Star every year, now 4 games into the season, he's looking for a hit. Andruw Jones has been terrific the past 3 years, yet he is looking for a hit. Disregard Kotsay was DFA'd, this guy is a first ballot HOFer. No hits? What is Walker doing. Oh I know, he's spending his time teaching his "lift and pull" philosophy to Juan Pierre.

 

Walker will probably quit if the Sox don't hit in the first 30-40 games IMO, but he'll be a scapegoat and when he's gone, everyone will see he wasn't the problem.

[DBAHO]

The Sox have scored 15 runs in 4 games. Greg Walker has to go. The Sox should have paid up big for Rudy Jaramillo. He has the Cubs scoring 13 runs in 4 games. If guys aren't hitting, its clearly the hitting coach's fault. There is no way the White Sox shouldn't have a .300 team batting average unless Greg Walker is incompetent. He clearly is. Mark Teahen has been an All Star every year, now 4 games into the season, he's looking for a hit. Andruw Jones has been terrific the past 3 years, yet he is looking for a hit. Disregard Kotsay was DFA'd, this guy is a first ballot HOFer. No hits? What is Walker doing. Oh I know, he's spending his time teaching his "lift and pull" philosophy to Juan Pierre.

 

Walker will probably quit if the Sox don't hit in the first 30-40 games IMO, but he'll be a scapegoat and when he's gone, everyone will see he wasn't the problem.

Just can't see that happening myself.

 

There's been plenty of occasions where the Sox have gone through stretches like that, and they could very easily made a change, but they haven't, so it gives me no reason to think they're going to do a 180 and make a change there.

[chw42]

You can't blame Walk yet. He may have resurrected Rios.

[Rowand44]

The offensive talent just isn't good enough this year to blame Walker at all(obviously it'd take a lot more than 5 games to make an assessment anyways). That being said he should have been canned a while ago, it'll take a lot for Walker ever to get fired.

[Balta1701]

The offensive talent just isn't good enough this year to blame Walker at all

It's not top of the league offensive talent, but it should be: quite a bit better than last year, and maybe middle of the league, on paper, if people stay reasonably healthy. If it's below average...

[sin city sox fan]

For him to get fired, it would take an incident involving a sheep, 3 goats, and a gallon of vasoline.

[ThunderBolt]

It's not top of the league offensive talent, but it should be: quite a bit better than last year, and maybe middle of the league, on paper, if people stay reasonably healthy. If it's below average...

We don't have a DH. Most teams in this league do. From the start, we've given ourselves a limitation that most teams don't have.

[Soxbadger]

They wont fire Walker because last I checked hes not making millions to hit a ball 1 out of 3 times.

 

Players who listen to Walker, seem to get better.

 

Players who dont, seem to do the same s*** every year.

 

The guy works hard and is well liked by management. I believe he actually offered to step down but they wouldnt let him. The guy is a class act and honestly no hitting coach is going to change this team.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

They wont fire Walker because last I checked hes not making millions to hit a ball 1 out of 3 times.

 

Players who listen to Walker, seem to get better.

 

Players who dont, seem to do the same s*** every year.

 

The guy works hard and is well liked by management. I believe he actually offered to step down but they wouldnt let him. The guy is a class act and honestly no hitting coach is going to change this team.

 

? Our best hitter is Beckham, who had no help from Walker in his career.

[jamesdiego]

"A Hitting Clinic: The Walt Hriniak Way" by Walt Hriniak. There are four used copies for only 60 cents each on amazon! Let's all pitch in and donate this book to these bums. They'll have to learn how to share though. Maybe we'll give Walker his own personal copy.

[Soxbadger]

? Our best hitter is Beckham, who had no help from Walker in his career.

 

Our best hitter right now is not Beckham.

 

People need to get over the hype, the guy is good, but hes not a superstar yet and its very likely that he may experience some problems in his sophomore campaign. Teams are already shading him to RF and as pitchers get better scouting reports on him he is going to have to learn to adjust.

 

He has a ton of raw natural talent as a hitter, but he still has a lot to learn about being a professional hitter.

 

 

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

Our best hitter right now is not Beckham.

 

People need to get over the hype, the guy is good, but hes not a superstar yet and its very likely that he may experience some problems in his sophomore campaign. Teams are already shading him to RF and as pitchers get better scouting reports on him he is going to have to learn to adjust.

 

He has a ton of raw natural talent as a hitter, but he still has a lot to learn about being a professional hitter.

I didn't say he was our best hitter right now, but these first 5 games notwithstanding, Beckham is our best hitter. He hits for average, power, gaps, and can handle the bat better than anyone else on this team.

[jasonxctf]

it will be interesting to see, with some seasoned hitters this year, if they performed better before or after coming to the Sox.

 

if they hit better last year (or years) then this year, the logical question will be why.

[sin city sox fan]

Our best hitter right now is not Beckham.

 

People need to get over the hype, the guy is good, but hes not a superstar yet and its very likely that he may experience some problems in his sophomore campaign. Teams are already shading him to RF and as pitchers get better scouting reports on him he is going to have to learn to adjust.

 

He has a ton of raw natural talent as a hitter, but he still has a lot to learn about being a professional hitter.

 

Which is another reason why Walker should go. Do we really want an poor hitting coach being the one working with Beckham when he's a raw natural talent that needs to be developed. This are his formulative years and the difference between a good hitting coach and a bad one during these next two years could make the difference whether he's a first ballot HOFer or not.

[dpd9189]

it will be interesting to see, with some seasoned hitters this year, if they performed better before or after coming to the Sox.

 

if they hit better last year (or years) then this year, the logical question will be why.

 

Not tryng to stick up for Walker but there's only so much he can do, ultimately its on the hitters to start hitting. Didn't the Cubs fire like two hitting coaches last year and it really did nothing for them? Either you can hit or you can't and right now this lineup isn't hitting worth a crap. Things better pick up or this is going to be a long season.

[Soxbadger]

I disagree that Walker is a poor hitting coach.

 

His philosophy is good (use all fields and be patient) the problem is that most players dont listen to hitting coaches.

 

Beckham already uses the field, what Walker can help him with his how pitchers are going to attack him, etc.

 

Everyone who has worked with Walker has nothing but good to great things to say.

 

The only people who seem to dislike him are people on this site who for no reason believe Walker teaches "lift and pull."

 

 

[Balta1701]

There are 2 things that I want a hitting coach to do that I worry about Walker on.

 

I want a hitting coach to be able to overhaul a guy's swing when it needs it. Some guys, Walker has totally failed to do this with (fields, Anderson). On the other hand, he seems to have done so successfully with Rios, at least so far for this season. Teahen is another one who really needs it, he's terrible right now, but that can change. I'm iffy on this one right now, but getting Teahen going is really important. And not just going; he needs to have a good year overalll.

 

The other thing I want a hitting coach to do is making sure guys have a clear plan when they go up against a pitcher. Take yesterday, with Liriano, for example. He was very, very wild for most of the game, but for at least half of his innings, guys like Jones, Vizquel...etc., were jumping on the first pitch and hitting it weakly or falling behind because the ball was so far out of the zone. You need to prep guys better than this...if you have a guy who isn't attacking the strike zone, you need to be more patient than that.

 

The other thing that you want a hitting coach to do is correct a guy when he has an issue with his swing crop up during a year, but with that one, you never know how much the hitting coach can do, because that one, the player has to listen m id-season.

[Kenny Hates Prospects]

Rios is Walker's project, and so far Rios looks great despite the low batting average. Quentin and Paulie are also looking good. That's all that's important.

 

Jones is a pipedream, Kotsay is a bench player, Alexei sucks in April, and Juan Pierre and Mark Teahen are both turds who along with Linebrink will hamstring the Sox in the payroll department for the next 2-3 years. There's nothing Walker can do about any of these guys. Get the man some f***ing talent and then judge him.

[WCSox]

Juan Pierre and Mark Teahen are both turds who along with Linebrink will hamstring the Sox in the payroll department for the next 2-3 years.

 

The Sox aren't paying any of these guys more than $5.5M/year, and Pierre and Linebrink will both be off the books after next season. They're hardly financial albatrosses. And, frankly, I'd much rather that this team pay a little more for Pierre and Teahen than go with cheaper options like Pods and Josh Fields.

 

[Soxfest]

As I said in today's game thread he is not held accountable for anything by anyone in Sox organization EVER!

Edited April 10, 2010 by Soxfest