I think I may create an entry in Craigslist advertising for my Chicago White Sox, and indicating how dire our need is for a lead-off hitter.
The team's expectations were low to begin with and to see them struggling a bit at this point is not unexpected, especially after the pain of last year's performance. What I would expect is that they would have had a better plan to begin the year.
This must be stated first: Give General Manager Kenny Williams credit for not making moves for the sake of making moves.
He held onto players who struggled last year such as Uribe, Buerhle, and Contreras. This is a smart move because he would have had to give them up for 50 cents on the dollar in order for others to take them.
With that said, Kenny must accept some blame for other issues.
Let's first establish a few facts. One, the purpose of the offense is to generate runs. Two, the purpose of the top guys in the lineup is to get on base.
Somehow people started to believe that the lead-off hitter must be able to steal bases. This is simply not true. Few players are able to steal frequently and successfully. The greatest achievement (besides an HR of course) that these top two spots can accomplish is to get on base.
Why? Well, because then when your hitters with better slugging percentages are at the plate, there are runners to drive in.
The issue at hand is that the White Sox came out of spring training with Nick Swisher as their lead-off hitter. It was alright when his OBP (on base percentage) was above .350, but it now is closer to .330 and that is not cutting it.
Their newest lead-off hitter is Orlando Cabrera, who used to hit second in the lineup and has an OBP of .299. Even if they want to claim Jerry Owens was their planned lead-off hitter, he is sub .320 for OBP—a number lower than Swisher's.
In the end, Kenny did not get a lead-off hitter in the offseason. But he did make many great moves, one of which I believe was getting Cabrera for soft tossing Jon Garland.
Also, you can see how well Carlos Quentin is working for the team. The market was slim, but they could do something today to make their team better for a minimal amount.
Kenny Lofton is still waiting for a phone call from some team. Last year was not his best, but he did not have a full chance to prove himself. If I were Kenny I would get his agent on the phone today to see what it would take to get him in a uniform.
This is just the opinion of Joe Sports Fan with no access to who else could be available, but it is a better option than simply sticking with what we have.
With no further action, this will be a team that likely performs in accordance with what outsiders expected. It will be a sub-.500 team that misses the playoffs. Fans will be left thinking "Well, we won in '05."
Yes, but how long before Geoff Blum is making appearances at Woodfield Mall while we reminisce, turning the White Sox into our version of the '85 Bears.
comments (7) write a comment »
write a new comment
4 months ago
i have faith in the speedy jerry owens. they should at least give him a shot at the next level, instead of leaving him to rot in the minor league system.
4 months ago
I'd love to sign Lofton, but we have too many outfielders right now. In an ideal world, though, we'd DH Dye, bench/trade Thome, and then have an OF of TCQ/Lofton/Swisher.
Part of me just wants a new start for this franchise. 2005 was three years ago, and I think I'll be able to cherish it even more if I'm not throwing my remote at the TV every time Paul Konerko rolls over a pitch and grounds out to short.
4 months ago
Lead off is such an important role in baseball today. When most teams have a high scoring offense it usually starts with a great lead off hitter. I believe when the White Sox won it all in 2005, Scott Podsednik had a career season posting .290 ba and OBP of .351. I will definitely tip my hat to Kenny Williams because he made some questionable moves during the off season, but so far they have paid dividends. Great pitching always beats good hitting, don't believe me just ask the Tigers. Gavin also appears to be a young star on the rise!
4 months ago
Hell Lofton still hit .296 last year.
the problem I have is even if they bring owens up where do they paly him? Center ok what about Swisher and Anderson? you can make Anderson the 4th outfielder but what about Swisher? you certainly are not going to bench Quentin or Dye. You could move him to 1st but what about Konerko? Maybe DH and Scrap Thome.there is no quick fix here and is hard to watch.
Ramirez has to either play or go to the minors fo AB's he need to get consistent playing time to grow. Hell put him in and dump Uribe he is killing you guys.
4 months ago
I totally agree with the Sox needing a lead-off hitter, as that was my main question for the team even when Jerry Owens was the presumptive starter. I think the problem is that, especially with the success of guys like Curtis Granderson, Carl Crawford and guys of that ilk (even Podsednik when he was healthy), that everyone has fallen in love with guys that have speed. Getting a guy with a high-OBP is considered a luxury now, where it was an expected part of the package before. While it's plainly obvious to everyone that Owens is nowhere near as talented as the other players mentioned, I think the Sox philosophy has been the same with many other teams in baseball: Speed first, OBP second (if at all) at the top of the order. I said it before, and I'll say it again, I'd love having a guy like Ryan Freel at the top of our lineup. He can play multiple positions, gets on base, steals some bags and has some power when necessary. He isn't flashy, but he's consistent.
from 4 months ago
I've been pushing for Ryan Freel since the Sox won it all in '05. He is just the kind of guy Kenny loves. The Give-It-All-Grinder coming off surgery. He has been out of a job in Cincinnati since they signed Patterson. Personally, I say go trade for Freel (Reds are looking for Catching, give them Hall), give him leadoff and 2B (the position he broke into the bigs at). He is the kind of grinder that Sox fans seem to fall in love with so blindly.
However, in all honesty, I could care less about speed in a lineup. If a team gets on base at a collective .350 clip like the Sox did with the first half month of this season, I'd be happy. When a team gets on base, they are creating opportunities for runs just as much as a stolen base or two would, if not more. The Sox did that the first half of April. They lead the league in almost every offensive category, except batting average. And as I said, I was more than fine with that. The 1906 White Sox won the World Series with a collective .230 batting average and a .295 OBP. The 2007 Diamondbacks had the best record in the National League with a .250 batting average and were outscored 712 runs to 732 runs. If the Sox get on base and score runs, that is all that matters to me.
4 months ago
I'm absolutely baffled that Kenny Lofton is still looking for work. His ability to get on base has certainly kept with him in his later years.
I'm actually fairly confident that Swisher will come back to his old self and can be the high-OBP presence at the top of the lineup that we need. He's drawn a truckload of walks, so batting average is the driving force behind the OBP issues. The driving force behind the batting average issues is the strikeout issues. You can't get lucky and get a hit if you can't put the thing in play. Still, Swisher isn't striking out appreciably more often than he has in other years in his career (it's still pretty darn close to 1 in every 4 at-bats), and although he's never been a high-average guy, he's certainly not THIS bad. Plus, moving to ChiTown means moving away from Oakland and their spacious foul territory. Without all those extra catchable foul pop-ups, I actually expected his batting average to INCREASE this year. My guess is that Swish has been having some rough luck and will bounce back if the team is patient with him.
There's one thing I'm sure of. No pitcher would want to mess with a lineup of Normal Nick Swisher and Carlos Quentin as a 1-2 high-OBP punch at the top of the lineup. Orlando Cabrera would be furious, but hey, at least the highest amount of at-bats would go to the guys who get on base a lot.
Thanks for the kind words, Wally.
write a new comment