It's a sad state of affairs when Jerry Owens is easier to consider a lock for opening day than Josh Fields. Alas, that appears to be a case, and thus
Owens receives his preview first.
Owens
returned to game action after taking a few days off to rest his groin, and he's happy with the early returns:
"It's behind me physically; it's the mental part we're trying to get
over now. When I have to react to a ball off the bat,
there were a couple of balls I was able to get to, and I didn't think
about it. I made the play and threw the ball in, then I was thinking,
'OK, it's a little sore.' That helps me know that the strength is
there, the flexibility is there. Now it's a matter of just forgetting
about it and playing.''
Of course, this doesn't do much to assuage anybody who's following Owens' injury situation and having flashbacks to Scott Podsednik's last two spring trainings with the Sox. Nor does it encourage anybody who's hoping Owens won't be the Sox's regular third outfielder. Nor the ones who hope he doesn't lead off.
I fit squarely in all three categories, but I've pretty much said all I can on
the subject of lineups by now. It's clear Ozzie Guillen prefers Owens, and as long as he can run, he'll receive a bulk of the playing time, and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to devote thousands of keystrokes to the subject, at least until the real games start.
In the meantime, here are two points that I'll try to use in coping with this:
No. 1: Independent of how he's used, Owens seems pretty likable. He's learned from his mistakes, understands his limitations, respects those around him, works hard, and unlike a lot of Sox prospects, has showed signs of improvement after early struggles. As much as I don't want the leadoff position ceded to him, I'm not going to root
against him.
No. 2: He'll be hitting behind Uribe in some form. When going through
State of the Sox for 2007, I noticed
several occasions where Owens failed to drive in a runner on third with less than two outs. So I looked up the numbers, and here are
his stats with runners on third:
- Third only: 1-for-11
- First and third: 1-for-7
- Second and third: 0-for-4
- Bases loaded: 3-for-6
The final line: .179/.281/.179. That's a small sample size, but it makes sense. Owens hits a lot of tappers and unremarkable grounders -- and he isn't an All-Star bunter -- so it makes sense that he would have below-average success in situations where runners aren't going on contact, especially on a team as slow as the Sox.
Uribe, meanwhile, is usually pretty good at getting runners home from third with less than two outs. At the very least, he's considerably better than Owens. So if Ozzie slots Uribe ahead of Owens at the bottom of the order, Owens' weakness in this facet should be minimized since Uribe struggles to get on base to begin with, much less make it to third.
Granted, I doubt either of these points will be factors in Owens' success or the team's success as a whole -- the first point is subjective, and the second point only refers to a very specific situation. I'd just rather look for silver lining than beat a dead horse at this point in the year.
**********************
I'll be addressing the third base situation in the next day or two, but I thought
this quote from Fields was interesting:
"Sometimes it may sound easier than it is, but sometimes [it's] something so simple as my hands being in a bad spot whenever I get ready to hit," Fields said. "Down here, where guys are coming in fresh, [throwing] 95-96 m.p.h., to when you catch them at midseason when they are at 90, 91. You can't have those little defects in your swing to get hits. Your swing has to be right. I have to keep remembering that's what spring training is for."
It caught my attention because
we talked about Fields' hand positioning way back on New Year's Eve. In short, he holds his hands and elbow low before the pitch arrives, causing a hitch in his swing that prevents him from catching up to high fastballs. We'll see if this is the problem he's addressing soon enough, but I'd be surprised if he kicked this habit completely in the near future.