posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 3:42 AM
by
Jim
When do we start worrying about Nick Swisher?
The White Sox blew plenty of scoring opportunities in
a disappointing 2-1 loss to Tampa Bay Friday night, and Nick Swisher was at the center of it. He grounded into a Swishalicious inning-ending 4-6-3 double play with the bases loaded in the second, which pretty much set the tone for the Sox offense the rest of the evening.
Swisher struggled through a fairly typical night -- 0-for-3 with a walk and two left on base. When he got a fastball to hit -- thigh-high, down the middle, 90 m.p.h. courtesy of Dan Wheeler -- he fouled it straight back, leaving him shaking his head.
His average dropped to .203, and his OBP (.330) and slugging percentage (.313) boost Jerry Owens' self-esteem every day. The GIDP was his ninth of the year; his career high is 13.
And forget about runners in scoring position. He's now 5-for-35 in such situations, which is the worst average on the team.
Before Swisher drags us down into his whirlpool of sadness, here are three attempts at silver lining:
No. 1: A two-month suckfest is not unprecedented. During his 35-homer campaign of 2006, Swisher disappeared during the entire months of June and July,
hitting .197/.327/.322 over 222 plate appearances. Relative to the league, it's worse than he's hitting now, since offensive numbers are down thus far in 2008.
No. 2: His luck has been terrible. There's no real way to quanitfy it, but I'm fairly certain Swisher leads the team in at-'em balls. Here's the best evidence statistically --
his line-drive rate has never been higher, and
his batting average on balls in play has never been lower.
No. 3: He has his health. Although he was hitting .259/.444/.519 before
he missed a game with a sore hip flexor.
OK, I could only muster 2 1/2 reasons. The rest is up to blind faith that a good hitter with a good track record will eventually right himself.
If Swisher can right himself, that would fix a lot of what is wrong with the offense right now. Jim Thome and Paul Konerko weren't hitting when they were scoring runs aplenty in the first two weeks of the season, so his improvement would be a helluva spark plug.
Of course, Konerko serves as an example that the Sox hitting coach doesn't have much of a track record of helping hitters out of death spirals. That's something for Swisher that we can't quite factor in yet.
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Speaking of sparkplugs,
Juan Uribe's coming back! Woooooooooooo!
*crickets*
Ozzie Guillen might not give him the job right away, which is fine. Alexei Ramirez earned at least one more start with his excellent performance tonight, and performed admirably during Uribe's absence considering his inexperience.
That said, Uribe was hitting slightly better in the two weeks leading up to his injury in terms of OBP and slugging, so unless by some miracle Ramirez can keep hacking productively, Uribe will probably work his way back into a majority of starts. Hopefully Ozzie will play the hot hand.
Danny Richar's not off to an awful start in Charlotte. He's hitting under .200, but considering this is essentially spring training for him, the signs are encouraging thus far.
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Ozzie hopes Orlando Cabrera and his teammates
can get to know each other a little better:
"I don't think Cabby lets his teammates know him really well," he said.
"Cabby is not a guy who communicates with people. When he leaves early
after the game, his teammates don't have a chance to get to know him. I
talked to him about it."
Hey,
Patton slapped his soldiers, so as far as field generals go, this is nothing.
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Minor league roundup:- Richmond 6, Charlotte 4 (10 innings)
- Charlie Haeger deserved the win -- 8 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K. And he only threw 101 pitches.
- Jason Childers blew the save, giving up only his third earned run of the season. Mike MacDougal blew the game.
- Jerry Owens went 2-for-4 with a walk, and is now 7-for-16 over his last four games. He did get caught stealing for the sixth time.
- Danny Richar went 1-for-4 with a walk; Thomas Collaro hit his fifth homer, a solo shot.
- Birmingham 3, Jacksonville 0
- Carlos Torres allowed two hits and two walks over six shutout innings, striking out three.
- Victor Mercedes hit a two-run homer; Dave Cook went 2-for-4.
- John Lujan, Derek Rodriguez and Jon Link preserved the shutout in relief with an inning apiece.
- Winston-Salem 5, Salem 0
- Matt Long pitched six shutout innings, allowing six hits and a walk while striking out two.
- Matt Davis picked up the other three for his second save.
- Francisco Hernandez went 2-for-4, raising his average to .240; Brandon Allen hit a solo homer.
- Lexington 8, Kannapolis 1
- Anthony Carter is mortal, as he was roughed up for seven runs on nine hits over 5 1/3 innings. Two of those hits left the yard.
- Adam Bowling struck out four over 2 2/3 innings of relief.