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have we seen the dawn of a new aj?

aj has more than half the doubles(13) he's had in each of the last 3 seasons(24, 24, 21). he also already has 10 walks. that might not seem like a lot, but consider the fact that his career high for walks in a season is 25 (2008). prior to that he had seasons of 22, 23, 19, 24, 13 and 16. that accounts for all of his full seasons in the majors.

i’ve heard mention of some different contacts aj has been wearing this season; and, i think he was the one that got hawk raving about the nintendo ds. could these factors really be contributing to what i’m at least temporarily calling the “new aj”? i don’t know if this trend of great offensive output can continue, but aj seems like a different hitter these days.

and you know what else? many of us were probably surprised to see aj in the 2-hole in the lineup, but his current output is pretty nearly ideal for that spot in the order. so kudos to ozzie for seizing what might be a great opportunity. now if we can just get him to put swish back in the leadoff spot and drop ocab towards the bottom of the lineup i could be convinced that ozzie is starting to get the knack of this filling out the lineup business. good times!

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I heard A.J. on Jim “Rack ‘Em!” Rome and he said that he lost a lot of weight because he felt he owed it to the White Sox, not that the team asked him to do it.

Also, like Hawk is always advertising now, A.J. said that the Nintendo DS game “Flash Focus” helped his hand-eye coordination and quick response.

Whatever the case is, he will definitely be earning his new contract if he keeps hitting like he did back when he was with the Twins even if his OPS drops back down to around .800.

by SSH2005 on May 16, 2008 9:43 AM CDT   0 recs

i heard him in a spring training interview

say that he planned to stop trying to hit home runs and wanted to go back to the high-average contact hitting he did with the twins. if he can add walks to that equation, he’ll be an ideal #2 hitter.

by Ryno on May 16, 2008 12:43 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

Fangraphs Stats

I have to give AJ major props for coming into this season in excellent shape, which is clearly helping him on the basebaths, turning his usual singles into more doubles.

I also have to say that looking at his graphs, his underlying stats do seem to indicate he’s become a more patient hitter this season. His walk rate is way up and if he can keep it up will smash his previous career high. His strikeout rate is way down, hell, maybe the new contacts are helping—or maybe he’s just getting in better hitter’s counts with his newfound patience. He is seeing slightly more P/PA this year as well.

Continuing a trend that he started after ‘05, he’s continuing to hit more fly balls and less ground balls. His LD % is down just slightly this year. His BABIB is near his career average, so it’s not like he’s just getting lucky either. It seems he’s hitting more hard hit fly balls, if anything.

I’m not a big AJ fan, but his improved fitness and approach has turned him into a very valuable player so far this year. If he can finish with a line around 300/360/450 he’ll earn every penny of his salary this year.

by madvillian on May 16, 2008 12:46 PM CDT   0 recs

i wouldn't use his career average BABIP

most of that is built up from early in his career when, as noted repeatedly, he was a different kind of hitter. i’d lean more towards him being lucky. or, at the very least, not draw any conclusion from it.

by larry on May 16, 2008 12:51 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

I tend to agree Larry: His LD% is down yet BABIB is up. I think he’s finding some holes with his looping fly balls. He can’t continue to count on that. The improved patience however, is entirely repeatable. We’ll see if he stays patient when those fly balls top falling in for a stretch.

http://www.fangraphs.com/graphs/746_C_season_mini_9_20080515.png

by madvillian on May 16, 2008 12:57 PM CDT   0 recs

The hits I've seen have been pulled between 1st and 2nd

or into the RF corner (or closer to down the line). They ain’t bleeders, either. I may be wrong (visual acuity slipping away) but he looks like he’s hitting more balls hard than last year, and is pulling it more.

I took the "under".

by winningugly on May 16, 2008 2:05 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

where?

is pulling it more.

in the park?

The greatest trick the White Sox ever pulled was convincing their fan base that "Ozzieball" ever existed.

by The Wizard on May 16, 2008 2:26 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

POS

LOL.

I took the "under".

by winningugly on May 16, 2008 2:30 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

his walk and k rates are the only real changes

and they are welcome ones if he can keep them up. if i had to guess where to look to see if his walk rate is sustainable, i’d check his pitches per PA. it’s at a steady 3.5 after two seasons of 3.4 and one of 3.6. so my guess is he’s not really changed anything, but the vision thing could in theory prevent him from hitting as many easily defensible batted balls which would in turn lead to a higher BABIP.

dude, that was totally not swish you saw on rush street last night. swish was at home playing xbox.

by colintj on May 16, 2008 5:25 PM CDT   0 recs

AJ

Where would this club be without A.J. I like his enthusiasm and attitude. It’s frustrating Thome and Konerko aren’t hitting. Ozzie can be a pain in the a__. We all love to hate Uribe. Swisher and Cabrera are concerns. But , call me optimistic, there is just something about this team I like. I can’t put a finger on it yet, but I like the way this team battles. The best example is the intensity of Quentin at the plate. This team has had chances to win nearly every game. Our pitching staff is a welcome surprise. This team will be there until the end.

by ed herrmann on May 16, 2008 8:53 PM CDT   0 recs

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