Gordon Beckham

[JohnCangelosi]

It's officially May, and he's hitting .194. I want to blame his demise on Walker. Too extreme? Where do we go from here? Seems we have to continue to play him everyday and hope he breaks out of it (yet again)

[soxrwhite]

Never thought I would miss Chris Getz!

[Steve9347]

I do honestly think we all need to adjust our projections for Gordon.

[iamshack]

I do honestly think we all need to adjust our projections for Gordon.

How do you even project this guy? His performance seems to fluctuate between career minor leaguer to all-star with not much in between. If he pulls this first half/second half dichotomy again, I'm going to just suggest he spend next April - June in the Hamptons...

[Dick Allen]

Beckham will be fine, as to the rest, its a good thing the majority of Soxtalk posters aren't GMs. You would be forced to have a payroll of about $25 million, because all all the money you would be paying players you released and other personnel you fired. As has always been said, the baseball season is a marathon. There is so much that can and will happen by the end of the year. Some you are all calling bums still will be bums, some you are calling bums you'll want KW to sign to a long extension by the end of the year.

 

I don't find anything wrong with being upset. If you're a fan of this team, you should be upset, but realize while maybe this team isn't going to be good enough to win the WS, we don't know that yet, there is even a smaller chance they are as bad as they have shown.

 

Matt Thornton broke 2 bats and struck a guy out yesterday and the result was 1 run in runners on 2nd and 3rd with no out. He got booed off the field. s*** happens. Unfortunately for us, its happening almost everyday to the White Sox.

[iamshack]

Beckham will be fine, as to the rest, its a good thing the majority of Soxtalk posters aren't GMs. You would be forced to have a payroll of about $25 million, because all all the money you would be paying players you released and other personnel you fired. As has always been said, the baseball season is a marathon. There is so much that can and will happen by the end of the year. Some you are all calling bums still will be bums, some you are calling bums you'll want KW to sign to a long extension by the end of the year.

 

I don't find anything wrong with being upset. If you're a fan of this team, you should be upset, but realize while maybe this team isn't going to be good enough to win the WS, we don't know that yet, there is even a smaller chance they are as bad as they have shown.

 

Matt Thornton broke 2 bats and struck a guy out yesterday and the result was 1 run in runners on 2nd and 3rd with no out. He got booed off the field. s*** happens. Unfortunately for us, its happening almost everyday to the White Sox.

Very well said.

 

For as much s*** as Jay Mariotti took around here, many of the posters here have the same trigger finger as he does.

Edited May 1, 2011 by iamshack

[Marty34]

Beckham's a mess mechanically. He needs to get back to his basic stance when he first came up which is slight knee bend, no leg kick and adjust off that if need be.

[JohnCangelosi]

Beckham will be fine, as to the rest, its a good thing the majority of Soxtalk posters aren't GMs. You would be forced to have a payroll of about $25 million, because all all the money you would be paying players you released and other personnel you fired. As has always been said, the baseball season is a marathon. There is so much that can and will happen by the end of the year. Some you are all calling bums still will be bums, some you are calling bums you'll want KW to sign to a long extension by the end of the year.

 

I don't find anything wrong with being upset. If you're a fan of this team, you should be upset, but realize while maybe this team isn't going to be good enough to win the WS, we don't know that yet, there is even a smaller chance they are as bad as they have shown.

 

Matt Thornton broke 2 bats and struck a guy out yesterday and the result was 1 run in runners on 2nd and 3rd with no out. He got booed off the field. s*** happens. Unfortunately for us, its happening almost everyday to the White Sox.

Thornton sure didn't have any luck whatsoever yesterday, but you can appreciate the boos, everyone on this teams deserves an earful, and I mean everyone. If they're not strong enough to take the boos and raise their level of intensity and competitive juices (which appears to be at about a 2 on a scale of 1-10 right now) then they all should move back in with their parents and cry to their mommies. Someone needs to pay for Gordo's slow start, his mechanics are awful. If they just let him swing like he did before Walker got in his head he'd probably be leading the league in doubles and hitting .320 right now.

[Dick Allen]

Thornton sure didn't have any luck whatsoever yesterday, but you can appreciate the boos, everyone on this teams deserves an earful, and I mean everyone. If they're not strong enough to take the boos and raise their level of intensity and competitive juices (which appears to be at about a 2 on a scale of 1-10 right now) then they all should move back in with their parents and cry to their mommies. Someone needs to pay for Gordo's slow start, his mechanics are awful. If they just let him swing like he did before Walker got in his head he'd probably be leading the league in doubles and hitting .320 right now.

Greg Walker didn't teach Beckham how to hit. If it were so easy or there were guys who made .194 hitters .330 hitters, hitting coaches would be the highest paid employees on baseball teams. You are being beyond naive if you think Greg Walker is costing Gordon Beckham 130 points of batting average.

 

 

[chetkincaid]

It's hard to believe that there were people here that did NOT wanna trade Beckham for Adrian Gonzalez. Ah but those were the days when he was still referred to as "Bacon".

 

Seems like years ago.

[JohnCangelosi]

Greg Walker didn't teach Beckham how to hit. If it were so easy or there were guys who made .194 hitters .330 hitters, hitting coaches would be the highest paid employees on baseball teams. You are being beyond naive if you think Greg Walker is costing Gordon Beckham 130 points of batting average.

I don't think that the entire league has "figured out" Gordo or found a way to exploit his approach. If you think the league has found something please point it out because I haven't seen anything special they are doing against him. He's getting started way too late and fouling off every good pitch to the right, just a hair late every time. Walker needs to be held accountable for the prolonged slumps of our hitters and figure out a way to get them right again much, much quicker. And it's not only April when we don't hit, it's also September as well let's not forget under Walk and I've had enough of it.

 

 

[elrockinMT]

Beckham will be fine, as to the rest, its a good thing the majority of Soxtalk posters aren't GMs. You would be forced to have a payroll of about $25 million, because all all the money you would be paying players you released and other personnel you fired. As has always been said, the baseball season is a marathon. There is so much that can and will happen by the end of the year. Some you are all calling bums still will be bums, some you are calling bums you'll want KW to sign to a long extension by the end of the year.

 

I don't find anything wrong with being upset. If you're a fan of this team, you should be upset, but realize while maybe this team isn't going to be good enough to win the WS, we don't know that yet, there is even a smaller chance they are as bad as they have shown.

 

Matt Thornton broke 2 bats and struck a guy out yesterday and the result was 1 run in runners on 2nd and 3rd with no out. He got booed off the field. s*** happens. Unfortunately for us, its happening almost everyday to the White Sox.

 

 

Watched the game and I can't see how we can really fault Thornton and I have seen the same in at least a couple other games. He breaks bats and the other team gets some kind of absolute lucky bloops and he blows it. I was more upset with watching Dunn take a called third strike with the bases loaded. Beckham does lok lost to me but here is aguy with very limited minor league experience and still learning at the major league level. He is still hitting for a higher average than Dunn. We get line drives caught on what loks like it could be a double or triple, etc. Nothing is falling our way just yet. But, I have to believe it will. Better we are 9 games out now than in September

[Milkman delivers]

Beckham will be fine, as to the rest, its a good thing the majority of Soxtalk posters aren't GMs. You would be forced to have a payroll of about $25 million, because all all the money you would be paying players you released and other personnel you fired. As has always been said, the baseball season is a marathon. There is so much that can and will happen by the end of the year. Some you are all calling bums still will be bums, some you are calling bums you'll want KW to sign to a long extension by the end of the year.

 

I don't find anything wrong with being upset. If you're a fan of this team, you should be upset, but realize while maybe this team isn't going to be good enough to win the WS, we don't know that yet, there is even a smaller chance they are as bad as they have shown.

 

Matt Thornton broke 2 bats and struck a guy out yesterday and the result was 1 run in runners on 2nd and 3rd with no out. He got booed off the field. s*** happens. Unfortunately for us, its happening almost everyday to the White Sox.

 

Oh, well when you put it that way! I'm glad we can just ignore his career in the majors.

[Milkman delivers]

Thornton sure didn't have any luck whatsoever yesterday, but you can appreciate the boos, everyone on this teams deserves an earful, and I mean everyone. If they're not strong enough to take the boos and raise their level of intensity and competitive juices (which appears to be at about a 2 on a scale of 1-10 right now) then they all should move back in with their parents and cry to their mommies. Someone needs to pay for Gordo's slow start, his mechanics are awful. If they just let him swing like he did before Walker got in his head he'd probably be leading the league in doubles and hitting .320 right now.

 

When you sport an ERA of 8.64 and have blown 4 saves, fans aren't going to be too kind to you. Spoiled fans, wanting adequate performances out of millionaire players...

[iamshack]

Oh, well when you put it that way! I'm glad we can just ignore his career in the majors.

Well, he has had sustained success in this league...I actually started replying earlier to Cangelosi's post in re: Walker ruining Gordo, but I couldn't really argue that, since he has put together stretches of 2-3 months where he's hit at an all-star level. That's not the league "adjusting" to his approach and exposing fatal flaws. It seems to me that this is more of a mental problem.

[Milkman delivers]

Watched the game and I can't see how we can really fault Thornton and I have seen the same in at least a couple other games. He breaks bats and the other team gets some kind of absolute lucky bloops and he blows it. I was more upset with watching Dunn take a called third strike with the bases loaded. Beckham does lok lost to me but here is aguy with very limited minor league experience and still learning at the major league level. He is still hitting for a higher average than Dunn. We get line drives caught on what loks like it could be a double or triple, etc. Nothing is falling our way just yet. But, I have to believe it will. Better we are 9 games out now than in September

 

I don't even know what to say to that. How about we try to never find ourselves 9 games out?

[Milkman delivers]

Well, he has had sustained success in this league...I actually started replying earlier to Cangelosi's post in re: Walker ruining Gordo, but I couldn't really argue that, since he has put together stretches of 2-3 months where he's hit at an all-star level. That's not the league "adjusting" to his approach and exposing fatal flaws. It seems to me that this is more of a mental problem.

 

He's not been some stud. He's had good stretches, as you said. I think Steve was right when he said that we probably need to reevaluate our projections for Beckham.

[bigruss]

He's not been some stud. He's had good stretches, as you said. I think Steve was right when he said that we probably need to reevaluate our projections for Beckham.

League average 2b hopefully, not bad but disappointing considering his potential.

 

I think one of the hardest things for a amateur player scout to see is how a player deals with slumps, since usually the top picks never had to deal with them before. A player can show great personality, but it's a different ballgame once they struggle on the field.

[iamshack]

He's not been some stud. He's had good stretches, as you said. I think Steve was right when he said that we probably need to reevaluate our projections for Beckham.

Well, he put up an .877 OPS Post ASB last year. That's all-star caliber for an MI. He put up OPS's of over .900 in July and September of '09. Again, all star caliber for an MI.

[Milkman delivers]

Well, he put up an .877 OPS Post ASB last year. That's all-star caliber for an MI. He put up OPS's of over .900 in July and September of '09. Again, all star caliber for an MI.

 

Like I said, good stretches. He hasn't had a great year yet, though. And with as bad as he's been so far, it probably won't happen this season either.

[iamshack]

Like I said, good stretches. He hasn't had a great year yet, though. And with as bad as he's been so far, it probably won't happen this season either.

I'm not arguing about the length of time, I'm arguing about the quality of those stretches. He's shown in two separate years (the only two he's played thus far), that he can play at an all star level for extended periods of time. That indicates this isn't a case of him being a AAAA player, or having some fatal flaw that wasn't exposed until he reached the major leagues, or even the league adjusting to him and him being unable to overcome that adjustment.

 

This reeks of something else...and I don't think it has anything to do with Greg Walker or expectations that are too high. He's meeting those expectations for long enough stretches of time to show that he is capable of what the expectations are.

Edited May 1, 2011 by iamshack

[Milkman delivers]

I'm not arguing about the length of time, I'm arguing about the quality of those stretches. He's shown in two separate years (the only two he's played thus far), that he can play at an all star level for extended periods of time. That indicates this isn't a case of him being a AAAA player, or having some fatal flaw that wasn't exposed until he reached the major leagues, or even the league adjusting to him and him being unable to overcome that adjustment.

 

This reeks of something else...and I don't think it has anything to do with Greg Walker or expectations that are too high. He's meeting those adjustments for long enough stretches of time to show that he is capable of what the expectations are.

 

I don't think he's going to be a AAAA player, but I'm not sure that he's going to be this stud we've all been believing he'd be. In fact, I'm getting quite sure of that.

[fathom]

Beckham's batted below .235 in 7 of his 12 months in the majors. For someone with medicore power, that's not very good.

[bigruss]

I'm not arguing about the length of time, I'm arguing about the quality of those stretches. He's shown in two separate years (the only two he's played thus far), that he can play at an all star level for extended periods of time. That indicates this isn't a case of him being a AAAA player, or having some fatal flaw that wasn't exposed until he reached the major leagues, or even the league adjusting to him and him being unable to overcome that adjustment.

 

This reeks of something else...and I don't think it has anything to do with Greg Walker or expectations that are too high. He's meeting those expectations for long enough stretches of time to show that he is capable of what the expectations are.

Well, it shows that the player either cannot learn how to break a slump in short enough time to truly become a good player, or the coach has failed to help him out of these slumps faster.

[Milkman delivers]

Beckham's batted below .235 in 7 of his 12 months in the majors. For someone with medicore power, that's not very good.

 

There's just very little to be optimistic about with this team at the moment and going forward. It's a depressing time to be a White Sox fan.

 

I'm sure that statement will be met with a lot of bile from the older group of posters who "suffered through the ____ years", but it's truly a sad time for this team.