POLL:Gordo, is he breaking out of that season long slump?

[chisoxfan09]

What has changed for Gordo? See numbers below:

 

07/02/2011 @CHC 2 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 .239 A 2011/07/02/chamlb-chnmlb-1 R

07/03/2011 @CHC 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 .241 A 2011/07/03/chamlb-chnmlb-1 R

07/04/2011 KC 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .238 H 2011/07/04/kcamlb-chamlb-1 R

07/05/2011 KC 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .235 H 2011/07/05/kcamlb-chamlb-1 R

07/06/2011 KC 3 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 .236 H 2011/07/06/kcamlb-chamlb-1 R

07/07/2011 MIN 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 .241 H 2011/07/07/minmlb-chamlb-1 R

07/08/2011 MIN 4 0 1 0 1 0 2 0 .241 H 2011/07/08/minmlb-chamlb-1 R

07/09/2011 MIN 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 .241 H 2011/07/09/minmlb-chamlb-1 R

07/10/2011 MIN 4 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 .245 H 2011/07/10/minmlb-chamlb-1 R

07/15/2011 @DET 4 1 2 0 2 0 2 0 .248 A 2011/07/15/chamlb-detmlb-1 R

TOTALS 33 2 11 0 4 1 5 0 .333

AB R H HR RBI BB SO SB BA

 

It's only a 10 game stretch but has he started to break the habit of over thinking on his swings and is he now just being patient and letting his "natural" swing come through at the plate?

 

Quick blurb from MLB White Sox Fantasy news:

 

Beckham is quietly hitting .385 over his last dozen games and has collected six RBIs in that span. He had a tremendous second half last season (.877 OPS), so keep an eye on the talented 24-year-old, as he might have another surge in him for 2011.

 

Link: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/fantasy/wsfb/news/i...layer_id=493596

Edited July 16, 2011 by knightni

[JohnCangelosi]

I pray that he doesn't listen to Walker the rest of the way and just rolls with it like he did in 2009 with that natural instinctive swing. If he does it would not surprise me to see him get to .280 or so. I still want to see more bullets hit off his bat as I swear he hit more balls hard in his last 75 games in 2009 than he has in 214 games he's played in since

[Dick Allen]

I pray that he doesn't listen to Walker the rest of the way and just rolls with it like he did in 2009 with that natural instinctive swing. If he does it would not surprise me to see him get to .280 or so. I still want to see more bullets hit off his bat as I swear he hit more balls hard in his last 75 games in 2009 than he has in 214 games he's played in since

That's how you can tell if anyone is listening to Walker. If they are hitting, they obviously are not. If they are in a slump, they hang on to his every word and do exactly as he says. If people that aren't around the team can figure that out so easily how is it the people associated with the team cannot? I just can't figure it out. Greg Walker obviously knows less about hitting than a typical 8 year old.

[soxrwhite]

He has been more selective. Laying off the high heat and the low outside slider. He has looked better recently.

[southsider2k5]

I don't know if he makes it to .270, but he has been on a slow and steady climb for a while now. He is coming around for sure.

[whitesoxbrian]

If he makes it to .270-.275 and keeps up his D, this team has a shot at winning the Central. Getting up to that average is a pretty drastic climb in 2.5 months. I hope he can do it, but I think he ends closer to .260 than .275.

[South Paw]

his OBP is .307 right now so even if he reaches .270 BA by the end of the year, his OBP will probably be closer to .340 than .370

[caulfield12]

I'm not sure we're going to get the Beckham who can "carry" a team, but ignite might be a better term. He definitely hasn't been hurting the White Sox recently, so that's some sort of progress. The defense has been better than expected.

 

Still, it's all for naught unless Rios turns it around. He's just completely lost up there right now.

 

Since we're stuck with him through 2014, I don't really see how we can drive down his value any more or "hurt him" psychologically if we tried DeAza and Rios in a platoon. The problem is you'd have to send down Lillibridge, and he's our defensive replacement and pinch-runner. Milledge probably can't play center well enough to contemplate him, and Jordan Danks wouldn't be much of a threat offensively, but just TRY something. They'll have to go back to Rios eventually.

 

We're carrying one pitcher too many in our bullpen. They should send down Santiago and continue to see how he progresses as a starter in Birmingham.

Edited July 16, 2011 by caulfield12

[oldsox]

Would Gordo ever have made it as a big league SS? I never saw him. I know he played SS at B'ham and a bit at Charlotte.

[knightni]

I adjusted the poll type. I was under the assumption that you wanted everyone to only vote for 1 thing.

[ILMOU]

his OBP is .307 right now so even if he reaches .270 BA by the end of the year, his OBP will probably be closer to .340 than .370

 

Yeah, unless his walk rate goes up a lot as well, he'll be in the .340 OBP range with a .270 BA, and that wouldn't be too terrible were he to get there.

 

I hope he hits well enough that Ozzie could possibly be weaned off the Juan Pierre teat as a leadoff man, but I know Gordo would have to hit at least .450 til the end of August for that to happen.

 

I'm looking forward to Ozzie bringing JP back to the Marlins next year so another fan base can wonder why a wash-up gets the most AB's on their team.

[Paulstar]

He still needs to change his approach. Most of his hits have been on pitches he can handle, like low breaking stuff and low fastballs. He still has a huge hole in his swing that leads him vulnerable to any fastballs thrown at the belt or higher.

[Balta1701]

Would Gordo ever have made it as a big league SS? I never saw him. I know he played SS at B'ham and a bit at Charlotte.

Probably, but he wouldn't be as good defensively at SS as he is at 2b. He's a better 2b than most of the other guys in the league, he'd be an average SS at best.

[RockRaines]

I honestly dont think its a "slump" when his swing is so s***ty. Its not even close to the swing that got him here.

[Kalapse]

Yeah, the OBPs are pretty unrealistic, right now he's sporting a 5.4% BB% which puts him in the bottom 25 or so in baseball. If he gets to 552 PA which he's about on pace for now, keeps up the 5.4% BB%, is gernerously hit by 5 more pitches, 3 more SH and 2 more SF he'd have 496 AB and would have to go from his current hit total of 70 to 134 in order to get to .270 and his OBP would be .326.

 

AVG/OBP with a 5.4% BB%:

.270/.326

.250/.308

.230/.289

[Nokona]

He and Walker said he had fixed his swing about 2 or 3 weeks ago and he started to hit the ball alot harder.

 

I think he's back.

[SoxAce]

When Beckham is back to the doubles machine, good eye, solid gap to gap hitter like he was his rookie year, and post all star break last season, then I'll say he's back.

[Dick Allen]

He's only going to get better. The lack of patience many here have with young players is pretty funny considering many of the same people want the Sox to totally rebuild. Either the people are masochistic, or just love being miserable. Young guys usually struggle. Beckham will be a really good player some day.

[southsider2k5]

Up over .250 now, and some nice clutch hitting.

[caulfield12]

And it was nice to see that Gordon didn't let the baserunning "blunder" (well, he was actually not off the bag early) affect him offensively or defensively.

 

He came through twice today in key situations. The entire offense feeds on that...and will get more and more confident.

 

At least until Dunn or Rios are up to bat.

[JohnCangelosi]

That's how you can tell if anyone is listening to Walker. If they are hitting, they obviously are not. If they are in a slump, they hang on to his every word and do exactly as he says. If people that aren't around the team can figure that out so easily how is it the people associated with the team cannot? I just can't figure it out. Greg Walker obviously knows less about hitting than a typical 8 year old.

Greg Walker's record speaks for itself.

 

/conversation

[caulfield12]

In all honesty, Gordon was the victim of his own early success.

 

He flew through the minors at least half a year too quickly....and never learned how to deal with failure and/or make adjustments.

 

After they adjusted to him in the second half of 2009 and first half of 2010, he readjusted.

 

In the midst of all those adjustments...his bad habits with that hitch in his swing (down, back and around) just made it harder and harder for him to catch up with fastballs.

 

He's obviously still got a lot of talent. Seems like he'll figure it out sooner or later.

 

 

And Rios, nobody in TOR could get anything out of him for the last 18 months of his contract there....and Walker did manage to get a great first half out of Rios in 2010, I find it hard to blame Walker for either Rios or Dunn. Both of those moves are 100% on KW.

 

 

[JohnCangelosi]

In all honesty, Gordon was the victim of his own early success.

 

He flew through the minors at least half a year too quickly....and never learned how to deal with failure and/or make adjustments.

 

After they adjusted to him in the second half of 2009 and first half of 2010, he readjusted.

 

In the midst of all those adjustments...his bad habits with that hitch in his swing (down, back and around) just made it harder and harder for him to catch up with fastballs.

 

He's obviously still got a lot of talent. Seems like he'll figure it out sooner or later.

 

 

And Rios, nobody in TOR could get anything out of him for the last 18 months of his contract there....and Walker did manage to get a great first half out of Rios in 2010, I find it hard to blame Walker for either Rios or Dunn. Both of those moves are 100% on KW.

Indeed it is on KW ultimately. However, we certainly couldn't do anything worse with a new batting coach could we? As they don't matter anyways as most of the Greg Walker defenders use as their argument to keep him around for life? Maybe just a change would prove to get something register with Rios and Dunn. They both have the talent. We won't make it to the post season without both of them producing.

 

I love how the Walker defenders talk about how much work he is putting in with these guys. As an owner of my own company for 12 years, I can tell you some of the best employees I got work only 4-6 hours a day. But they get it done and deliver their numbers, which is all that matters. Simultaneously I have people working 12-14 hrs a day producing less than desirable results and after a while, are on their way out. Think about it- the fact that he is spending 15 hrs a day with these guys producing garbage results is almost more embarrassing when you think about it...

 

 

[chw42]

Even though Beckham's 4-8 in the past two games, he's still looked lost in certain at bats. Like he struck out the two times he got out last night and it wasn't pretty...

[Balta1701]

Even though Beckham's 4-8 in the past two games, he's still looked lost in certain at bats. Like he struck out the two times he got out last night and it wasn't pretty...

Sometimes that happens against Justin Verlander though. That happens for anyone.