White Sox Unveil Monument, Call it an Offense

by The Cheat on Apr 11, 2008 11:23 PM CDT Comment 12 comments

There wasn't much fight in the White Sox offense Friday night, unless you count the animated Jim Thome, who was ejected for just the third time in his career. Nick Swisher got (most of) the night off to nurse a sore hip flexor, and the rest of the Sox offense followed suit.

The Sox quickly had the erratic Dontrelle Willis on the ropes before he was pulled without retiring a batter in the first, but couldn't put together anything against a Tigers bullpen which entered the game as one of the worst in baseball. They managed just 4 hits in 9 innings off a group that had allowed 38 in 32 innings entering the night.

I had the pleasure of missing most of this one, so I'll leave the specifics up to you guys. Thankfully there's another game in a little over 12 hours.

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The Thomer is getting frustrated

It was only the third ejection of Thome's 15-year career, his last coming June 1, 2005, against the San Francisco Giants, also for arguing balls and strikes.

Here's his gamelog for 2005. He was batting .209 when he got tossed back then, but his vital stats were .209/.362/.309/.361 (please note the extra OPS column for those who don't like math).

After last night's ofer, he's at .143/.211/.371/.582 - that OBP is down under Uribe territory. I hope he doesn't have any back problems again, after 10 games this is getting to be a concern. If it's not his back, he needs to hit Rush Street with Swish and Booner and find himself a slumpbuster.

by ChicagoPete on Apr 12, 2008 6:21 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

oops - use the preview dummy. That 2005 OPS should be .661 (not .361)

by ChicagoPete on Apr 12, 2008 6:23 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

More Thome concerns

Uh, this is really bad. More stuff from fangraphs. His line drive % (the red line) is approaching zero. So he can't blame this slump on bad luck, he's just sucking bad in every phase of the offensive game.

Here's more detail, except for a couple of very, very brief moments his LD% has never been down here. He always hits the ball hard, he's not doing that now:

''It's a grinder-type attitude, energetic attitude, confident-type attitude, and if it grinds on some people, then I need to know who those people are so we can move them on''

by ChicagoPete on Apr 12, 2008 7:33 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I think I see a couple similar LD drops in '06 and '02

am I correct? correct or not on previous years though I hope this year's mini-slump doesn't last...

by The Wizard on Apr 12, 2008 12:35 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I dunno

Looks like he's at 4% this year after 9 games, he's never been under 10% except for what looks like 3 games in 02 and a little cluster at the end of last year.

This is not good. He's not walking, he's not hitting the ball hard, and Verlander just flat out challenged him with belt high gas down the middle and he was nowhere close to it. Either he's injured, he's been served with divorce papers, or he's approaching the end of the line.

''It's a grinder-type attitude, energetic attitude, confident-type attitude, and if it grinds on some people, then I need to know who those people are so we can move them on''

by ChicagoPete on Apr 12, 2008 1:19 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

37 year old approaching the end of the line

way to go out on a limb there.

somewhere in arizona, jerry owens silently weeps.

by larry on Apr 12, 2008 1:25 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

So you think every thing is hunky-dory in Thomeland?

Just a minor slump, nothing out of the ordinary eh

''It's a grinder-type attitude, energetic attitude, confident-type attitude, and if it grinds on some people, then I need to know who those people are so we can move them on''

by ChicagoPete on Apr 12, 2008 1:53 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

who knows

it's 40 PAs

somewhere in arizona, jerry owens silently weeps.

by larry on Apr 12, 2008 1:57 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

"a line drive rocket"

yes!

by The Wizard on Apr 12, 2008 2:08 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

ot

is sabathia headed to the dl any day now or is he just fighting through an awful stretch?

Just because you are a character doesn't mean you have character.

by Toonderstrook on Apr 12, 2008 11:28 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

He didn't look impressive on opening day

''It's a grinder-type attitude, energetic attitude, confident-type attitude, and if it grinds on some people, then I need to know who those people are so we can move them on''

by ChicagoPete on Apr 12, 2008 11:58 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs