posted on Wednesday, September 12, 2007 2:27 AM
by
Jim
A few more thoughts about Greg Walker
While digging through the archives trying to find that Kenny Williams-Jerry Manuel article
I cited in the last post, I came across another one that's still quite interesting in retrospect. From the Daily Herald's Scot Gregor, May 19, 2003:
MINNEAPOLIS - One week after White Sox manager Jerry Manuel urged his struggling offense to look in the mirror instead of blaming the support staff, hitting coach Gary Ward was fired.
"We felt the need for a change and a different voice in an effort to get our offense jump-started,'' Sox general manager Kenny Williams said Sunday night.
Under Ward, the White Sox' highly touted offense was batting just .249. He seemed unable to help struggling hitters like Paul Konerko (.221), Joe Crede (.231) and Carlos Lee (.265).
Some batting averages on
May 19, 2007, in which all the hitters comprising the Sox lineup that day weren't anywhere close to their career averages:
- Team: .223
- Paul Konerko: .193
- Jermaine Dye: .218
- Joe Crede: .209
- Rob Mackowiak: .198
While
Jerry Reinsdorf might consider me brainless, I'd like to think I've been pretty fair in my assessment of Walker so far. In fact, all I've been asking for is one clear-cut example that states his value to the team, aside from being a nice guy.
Here's a good example of what I'm looking for:
Baseball Think Factory linked to
this Philadelphia Daily News story that describes the relationship between Phillies manager Charlie Manuel and Pat Burrell.
While Manuel's managing skills are dubious, nobody's ever questioned his talent for teaching hitting. As hitting coach, he oversaw the Cleveland Indians' juggernaut offense of the mid-1990s, including
the team that scored over 1,000 runs in 1999. His Phillies haven't been able to seal the deal in the final month, but it hasn't been for a lack of numbers.
At any rate, after hitting .129 in June, Burrell has been on fire
for three straight months, which is by far his most consistent stretch since 2002. Here's Manuel's explanation:
"I can remember when [people] were hollering at me to bench him," Manuel said with a laugh. "He's come a long ways, but that's a tribute to him. He kept grinding it out and now he's having himself a big second half.
"His bat is flatter than it used to be. He's doing a little wiggle when he's getting ready. He's got a better load. Better balance at the plate. He might be a little bit closer [to the plate]. Not much."
Weight balance, weight transfer and swing plane -- it's not groundbreaking stuff. It also sounds vaguely sexual. But note two things: 1) He can actually point to physical changes and tangible advice that helped a hitter get better, and 2) while he mentions confidence, note that Burrell's increased amount came after changes were made. He treats swagger as an end, not a mean.
Something like this -- something on which Walker can hang his hat -- is all I'm trying to find.
Brian Anderson is still the only example of somebody who benefited from suggested changes to his technique, but I'd like to find somebody else. You know, somebody who is still in the Sox's plans.
And before leaving the subject of Charlie Manuel, he is exactly the reason why putting a lot of money down on Aaron Rowand may not be a good idea. Before
he broke his face in May last year,
Rowand was hitting .310/.356/.516 for the Phillies. This year, he's setting career highs in batting average, on-base percentage, walks, RBI and doubles. With two more homers, he'll have a new high in that category, too.
In Rowand's last year with the Sox, he batted .270/.329/.407 and
grounded out to short 19 more times than anybody else on the Sox. This year? Well, he's still
grounding out to short quite often, but he's enjoying far better results with his other batted balls.
That leads me to belive that "Rowand 6-3," the likable center fielder with the strong tendency to jerk all sorts of pitches into the ground, is still hanging around.
Without a massive change in hitting approach, the Sox clubhouse would be just the environment for enabling the reappearance of that Rowand. Except this time, he'd be costing roughly three to four times as much.