Gordon Beckham

[iamshack]

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.

And it's hard to disagree with you. But it won't be because he wasn't as talented as we thought he was. It will be because something is not quite right upstairs...

[iamshack]

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.

These are not slumps, Russ. Slumps are like 3-37 stretches. These are periods of months at a time.

[bigruss]

And it's hard to disagree with you. But it won't be because he wasn't as talented as we thought he was. It will be because something is not quite right upstairs...

I honestly almost have to laugh, the Sox finally draft someone incredibly talented and makes it to the majors, and then they find out that he can't handle slumps.

 

Ugh.

[bigruss]

These are not slumps, Russ. Slumps are like 3-37 stretches. These are periods of months at a time.

Eh, I call them the same thing, but bottom line is that he has to figure out a way to shorten these stretches.

[iamshack]

Eh, I call them the same thing, but bottom line is that he has to figure out a way to shorten these stretches.

I guess we just look at it differently. You're talking about shortening something that is 2 months long to 4 -6 games...I think that is barking up the wrong tree. I think he's got to figure out a way to completely avoid this...whatever it is.

[fathom]

Eh, I call them the same thing, but bottom line is that he has to figure out a way to shorten these stretches.

 

Hell, just judging by his first AB most games, you can see if he's going to have a good or bad day. If he strikes out on a bad pitch in his first AB, you can be pretty confident he's going to struggle the rest of the game.

[iamshack]

Hell, just judging by his first AB most games, you can see if he's going to have a good or bad day. If he strikes out on a bad pitch in his first AB, you can be pretty confident he's going to struggle the rest of the game.

Yeah, he has to be more mentally tough than that (as much as I hate the phrase).

[T R U]

He should have gotten more time in the minors

[Chisoxfn]

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.

And unfortunately he's made horrendous mechanical adjustments to his swing and looks horrendous. And by horrendous, I'm talking about he looks like Brian Anderson at the plate right now.

 

He is a guy who came up with a nice swing, made some changes, and than made even more changes this off-season and I don't even know who the hell this guy is at the plate now. It is just horrendous and I don't know if it was Beckham or Walker or what.

 

But you know what, when you play like garbage for this long of a stretch in such a key year, you have to fire someone....Walker is that someone to me.

[iamshack]

And unfortunately he's made horrendous mechanical adjustments to his swing and looks horrendous. And by horrendous, I'm talking about he looks like Brian Anderson at the plate right now.

 

He is a guy who came up with a nice swing, made some changes, and than made even more changes this off-season and I don't even know who the hell this guy is at the plate now. It is just horrendous and I don't know if it was Beckham or Walker or what.

 

But you know what, when you play like garbage for this long of a stretch in such a key year, you have to fire someone....Walker is that someone to me.

Wait, was it horrendous?

[Chisoxfn]

Wait, was it horrendous?

The White Sox are horrendous at baseball, lol. For this next post, I'll use a synonym of horrendous

 

Atrocious defense...check

Atrocious offense...check

Atrocious bullpen...check

 

The only thing we've been solid at is our strating pitching has been good. Outside of that, from a performance perspective, we've done everything else poorly. And while I'm not writing the season off, these consistent slow starts get pretty old and I'd like to think at some point someone takes a fall for them.

[fathom]

The White Sox are horrendous at baseball, lol. For this next post, I'll use a synonym of horrendous

 

Atrocious defense...check

Atrocious offense...check

Atrocious bullpen...check

 

The only thing we've been solid at is our strating pitching has been good. Outside of that, from a performance perspective, we've done everything else poorly. And while I'm not writing the season off, these consistent slow starts get pretty old and I'd like to think at some point someone takes a fall for them.

 

Starting pitching hasn't been all that good, as our ERAs are 3.06, 3.60, 4.46, 5.12, 5.86 (worst two are our top 2 starters supposedly)

[Chisoxfn]

I think it has been good, but you right, it hasn't been great by all means. But some of those ERA's are inflated by one real bad start. I still think the Sox figure it otu, but I don't think it will be until after they can Walker.

[southsider2k5]

I honestly almost have to laugh, the Sox finally draft someone incredibly talented and makes it to the majors, and then they find out that he can't handle slumps.

 

Ugh.

 

Meet Paul Konerko for the first 10 years of his career. (minus the draft part.)

[Milkman delivers]

Starting pitching hasn't been all that good, as our ERAs are 3.06, 3.60, 4.46, 5.12, 5.86 (worst two are our top 2 starters supposedly)

 

I was about to say the same thing. I'm not sure where you're getting those numbers, though.

 

Humber - 3.06

Danks - 3.92

Floyd - 4.39

Buehrle - 5.12

Jackson - 5.86

 

Only one of those is definitely good. Danks is borderline good/decent. Floyd is completely average. Buehrle and Jackson are bad.

[Paint it Black]

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.

This post sucks.

 

So you're saying Thornton should be booed because he made his pitches? Then you throw out the "competitive juices" nonsense where you offer no proof the White Sox are not playing their hardest. THEN you want to blame somebody else for Beckham not getting the job done? The finally you project Beckhams stats if someone else was the hitting coach, yet you cannot name a someone else that would do a better job.

 

If hitting coaches mattered they'd go to the hall of fame. Hell if they mattered you could give me a list of the 5 best hitting coaches of all time. But neither is the case.

[Milkman delivers]

This post sucks.

 

So you're saying Thornton should be booed because he made his pitches? Then you throw out the "competitive juices" nonsense where you offer no proof the White Sox are not playing their hardest. THEN you want to blame somebody else for Beckham not getting the job done? The finally you project Beckhams stats if someone else was the hitting coach, yet you cannot name a someone else that would do a better job.

 

If hitting coaches mattered they'd go to the hall of fame. Hell if they mattered you could give me a list of the 5 best hitting coaches of all time. But neither is the case.

 

Yes, he gave up more runs and somehow raised his terrible ERA. He has not pitched well at all this season. It's no longer just "early" in the season. We're an entire month into this thing.

[JohnCangelosi]

This post sucks.

 

So you're saying Thornton should be booed because he made his pitches? Then you throw out the "competitive juices" nonsense where you offer no proof the White Sox are not playing their hardest. THEN you want to blame somebody else for Beckham not getting the job done? The finally you project Beckhams stats if someone else was the hitting coach, yet you cannot name a someone else that would do a better job.

 

If hitting coaches mattered they'd go to the hall of fame. Hell if they mattered you could give me a list of the 5 best hitting coaches of all time. But neither is the case.

If you think they're playing hard then you're watching a different game than I've been for the past 2 weeks, they are playing like they want Ozzie fired. A perfect example of this is Teahen who couldn't grab the hard hit ball down the line last night (not an easy play) and pouted for a bit, quit on the play, and then wasn't ready for Alexei's peg that would have easily gotten the guy out at 3rd.

 

Sure Thornton had tough luck last night and this year for that matter, but in case you didn't notice, he's also sucked. I have no problem booing him off the field, he should be able to handle it, consider it a cumulative boo for all the times he's blown games and didn't get booed.

 

And regarding Beckham, it's the hitting coaches job to get players with talent to shorten those slumps from 3 weeks down to one by offering swing thoughts that can get them back into place. Of course it's up to the player at the end of the day, but no way should MLB talents like Beckham and Rios be hitting in the .100's before game action on May 1. That's on Walker son....on any other team I hardly doubt you see so many people struggle at the plate at once. But I'm sure your affection for your team and Greg Walker won't allow you to see it that way, sometimes ignorance is bliss.

[fathom]

If you think they're playing hard then you're watching a different game than I've been for the past 2 weeks, they are playing like they want Ozzie fired. A perfect example of this is Teahen who couldn't grab the hard hit ball down the line last night (not an easy play) and pouted for a bit, quit on the play, and then wasn't ready for Alexei's peg that would have easily gotten the guy out at 3rd.

 

They really are. The last straw for me was Konerko getting picked off at first by the catcher when he had a 2 foot leadoff.

[Milkman delivers]

They really are. The last straw for me was Konerko getting picked off at first by the catcher when he had a 2 foot leadoff.

 

We can only hope.

 

The day Ozzie is fired, I am going to celebrate as though it were my birthday. I don't care if it's a Tuesday, I'm going out and having a blast.

 

My birthday is actually this month. That would be a great present.

[Paint it Black]

If you think they're playing hard then you're watching a different game than I've been for the past 2 weeks, they are playing like they want Ozzie fired. A perfect example of this is Teahen who couldn't grab the hard hit ball down the line last night (not an easy play) and pouted for a bit, quit on the play, and then wasn't ready for Alexei's peg that would have easily gotten the guy out at 3rd.

 

Sure Thornton had tough luck last night and this year for that matter, but in case you didn't notice, he's also sucked. I have no problem booing him off the field, he should be able to handle it, consider it a cumulative boo for all the times he's blown games and didn't get booed.

 

And regarding Beckham, it's the hitting coaches job to get players with talent to shorten those slumps from 3 weeks down to one by offering swing thoughts that can get them back into place. Of course it's up to the player at the end of the day, but no way should MLB talents like Beckham and Rios be hitting in the .100's before game action on May 1. That's on Walker son....on any other team I hardly doubt you see so many people struggle at the plate at once. But I'm sure your affection for your team and Greg Walker won't allow you to see it that way, sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Players should be booed when their play warrants it. Sorry, Thornton made his pitches and got unlucky and anyone who booed him is a baseball retard.

 

And with regards to Beckham, who even knows how coachable he is! I know that sounds like a cop-out, but we as fans just don't know. Walker could be giving Beckham tips to hit 60+ homers a year and Beckham could be like "nope screw you." (for the record I'm not saying that's what is happening, my point rather is that as fans we don't know what really happens behind the scenes) With Rios, I think his toe is still bothering him.

 

Sorry I don't look for scape goats in coaches. If firing the hitting coach actually worked, teams would do it when every slump happened. They don't.

 

But I'm sure someone is making me list of the best hitting coaches ever. Yep, any day now.

[JohnCangelosi]

Players should be booed when their play warrants it. Sorry, Thornton made his pitches and got unlucky and anyone who booed him is a baseball retard.

 

And with regards to Beckham, who even knows how coachable he is! I know that sounds like a cop-out, but we as fans just don't know. Walker could be giving Beckham tips to hit 60+ homers a year and Beckham could be like "nope screw you." (for the record I'm not saying that's what is happening, my point rather is that as fans we don't know what really happens behind the scenes) With Rios, I think his toe is still bothering him.

 

Sorry I don't look for scape goats in coaches. If firing the hitting coach actually worked, teams would do it when every slump happened. They don't.

 

But I'm sure someone is making me list of the best hitting coaches ever. Yep, any day now.

How about any hitting coach who doesn't get in the way of the existing talent on the team and doesn't make them about 3x WORSE than they actually are?!?!?! I'm pretty damn sure Dustin Hoffman in Rainman could do a better job, as at least he wouldn't get in the way.

[Paint it Black]

So you want them coached out of slumps, but to not get in the way of existing talent. Got it.

[Milkman delivers]

Players should be booed when their play warrants it. Sorry, Thornton made his pitches and got unlucky and anyone who booed him is a baseball retard.

 

And with regards to Beckham, who even knows how coachable he is! I know that sounds like a cop-out, but we as fans just don't know. Walker could be giving Beckham tips to hit 60+ homers a year and Beckham could be like "nope screw you." (for the record I'm not saying that's what is happening, my point rather is that as fans we don't know what really happens behind the scenes) With Rios, I think his toe is still bothering him.

 

Sorry I don't look for scape goats in coaches. If firing the hitting coach actually worked, teams would do it when every slump happened. They don't.

 

But I'm sure someone is making me list of the best hitting coaches ever. Yep, any day now.

 

Don't get too attached to Walker. I'm fairly confident that he's not going to make it through the season.

[JohnCangelosi]

So you want them coached out of slumps, but to not get in the way of existing talent. Got it.

Ideally I'd like our hitting coach to be able to help our players get out of a slump quicker than 7 weeks, but I'm pretty sure someone offering NO advice would be FAR better than anything that comes out of Walker's mouth. His record speaks for itself. I'm assuming you're watching the same offense as me right? I mean, the results are laid out all nicely gift wrapped for you to see. I ask because in your world we're really playing our tails off out there, you can really see the fire and passion from this team day in and day out and we're just not getting any breaks.