Jump to content

Sox best hitter endorses Walker


SoIL

Recommended Posts

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 25, 2011 -> 09:12 PM)
Fair enough. If Cooper really believes 1) he has a legit chance to manage the Sox or another team or 2) that he should go with Ozzie, then it's probably best to start over, especially if they don't keep Buehrle.

 

And it's not like Mark needs a lot of time with Cooper, anyway.

 

As far as the NEW pitching coach having a bad situation, it's not like he's behind the 8 ball either. Nobody would blame a new pitching coach for Peavy putting up similar numbers to 2011, they would just accept that he lost his stuff and command with the surgery and nothing a pitching coach could do will fix something that's broken.

 

If they're still here, getting 4 or below ERA's out of Floyd and Danks would be acceptable.

 

The main issues for the new coach will be Stewart, Sale (if he's being converted to a starter), Humber (once again, nobody EXPECTS him to post a sub-4.00 ERA again....or at least MOST don't) and maintenance with Santos to make sure he doesn't regress.

 

Obviously, Cooper's yet to find the magic "flip/switch" to get more consistency out of Stewart. Outside of beating up the Twins' AAA roster, he hasn't done much to bolster confidence in him as a rotation member going forward.

 

Which leaves Sale and Santos. If they slip up, he might be blamed. But there are lots of baseball people who aren't convinced that Chris will make it as a starter long-term. And if Santos fails, he'll be called a "one hit wonder" like Takatsu who the league figured out. Although obviously Sergio has an elite slider and a plus fastball to go with it.

 

Following the guy who walked on water and whom fans patented the phrase "Coop will fix 'em" will not be easy. Anything bad will be their fault, anything good will be left over from Coop. Plus, the new manager and/or GM will be blamed for Cooper leaving.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 266
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I didn't read all of the posts in the entire thread, so perhaps someone has already made the following suggestion:

 

Keep Walker, and ask every underperforming, struggling hitter to use Konerko as a working model. They could all do much worse than simply copying his mechanics, with Walker as the instructor. Is there a more sound approach to hitting anywhere?

It looks as though Lillibridge already has done that, after working with Walker over the winter.

It would certainly represent a big improvement over Dunn's long swing, and whatever you call that abomination of Rios', earlier in the season.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (Lillian @ Sep 26, 2011 -> 10:52 AM)
I didn't read all of the posts in the entire thread, so perhaps someone has already made the following suggestion:

 

Keep Walker, and ask every underperforming, struggling hitter to use Konerko as a working model. They could all do much worse than simply copying his mechanics, with Walker as the instructor. Is there a more sound approach to hitting anywhere?

It looks as though Lillibridge already has done that, after working with Walker over the winter.

It would certainly represent a big improvement over Dunn's long swing, and whatever you call that abomination of Rios', earlier in the season.

Biggest issue with this concept is...PK14 might be the best in baseball at recognizing the fastball early. If someone else tried to adopt his exact approach but couldn't respond as effectively to the fastball, then that other hitter might be completely worthless.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 26, 2011 -> 09:01 AM)
Biggest issue with this concept is...PK14 might be the best in baseball at recognizing the fastball early. If someone else tried to adopt his exact approach but couldn't respond as effectively to the fastball, then that other hitter might be completely worthless.

 

Yes, perhaps, however being "quiet", short and quick to the ball can't hurt anyone of our struggling hitters.

I'm not suggesting that any of them would end up being as good a hitter as Konerko. I'm only saying that they could improve by using his very fundamentally sound approach.

 

Being short and quick to the ball, and being willing to go to the opposite field on outside pitches, would be a positive change for any of our hitters, and would not be detramental even to those who weren't as proficient at recognizing the fast ball.

 

I think Walker understands and preaches this technique. The problem is that few of our hitters seem to want to take the advice. It's helped Konerko and Lillibridge, and I suspect that it would help a lot of guys. I hope noone here actually believes that Walker was endorsing, much less recommending, Rios' approach to hitting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (Tex @ Sep 26, 2011 -> 05:32 AM)
Following the guy who walked on water and whom fans patented the phrase "Coop will fix 'em" will not be easy. Anything bad will be their fault, anything good will be left over from Coop. Plus, the new manager and/or GM will be blamed for Cooper leaving.

 

I'm glad to see that you think Sox fans have the collective IQ of a moldy grapefruit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...