In a USA Today piece, White Sox General Manager, Rick Hahn, was quoted as saying,
"What we really wanted to do, and we're not done yet, is assemble a lineup that has athletic players that
can beat you multiple ways.” For the White Sox to beat teams in multiple ways, they need to do the small
things right. This includes taking pitchers deep into counts, only swinging at good pitches and being able to move base
runners. Some players have made many improvements from last year, while others are still trying to show they
can be out there next season.
Adam Eaton:
As a leadoff hitter, Adam Eaton swings often and sees only 4.04 pitches per plate appearance. Swinging often has
resulted in only 11 walks, which puts him behind 186 other MLB players. An area that Eaton still needs to work on to
be an effective leadoff hitter in the majors is to learn to take pitches outside of the zone. In 2014, he has swung at
51% of breaking pitches outside of the strike zone, nearly all of which have been pitches low and away.
In 66 games of the 2013 season, Eaton swung at 27.3% of all total pitches outside the strike zone, leading to 15 outs.
So far in 2014, Eaton has swung at 30.7% of total pitches outside of the strike zone, which has already led to 7 outs
through the first two months of the season.
Adam Dunn:
In the past, Adam Dunn has swung at up to 27.7% of pitches outside of the strike zone. In 2014, he is only swinging
at 18.9% of pitches outside of the zone and is on pace to walk about a dozen more times this year than last year.
Dunn has a good eye when it comes taking balls and is currently walking 16% of plate appearances compared to the
MLB average of 9%, but he has been struggling a lot with called strike outs.
Dunn strikes out 28.6% of plate appearances (MLB Avg. 17%) and 15 of his 56 strikeouts have been looking.
About half of his called strikeouts have been pitches that can go either way, but for a guy that walks as
much as Dunn, it is surprising that he strikes out looking so often.
It is clear that Dunn has done a better job this year at passing up on pitches far outside of the strike zone,
specifically pitches low in the dirt. In the past, he would swing and miss more often at high fastballs in the
upper third of the zone and low sliders. This year, he has let a lot of fastballs over the plate go by, but he
also has done a remarkable job at holding back on high fastballs outside of the zone. Low sliders were
a weakness of Dunn’s during the ’13 season and he has not seen as many sliders thrown low and away so far this year.
Even so, it seems as though he is still doing a better job at letting the low and away sliders he has seen go by
Alexei Ramirez:
Alexei started the season off red hot in 2014 when he hit safely in his first 17 games of the season.
Alexei swings the bat often, but he also makes contact with 95.6% of pitches inside of the strike zone.
Through the 2014 season, he has only swung and missed at 9 pitches in the strike zone and 5 of those
pitches have been sliders. As a result of making contact on so many pitches, Ramirez has struck out
only 11.1% of his plate appearances putting him at 16th best in the Majors.
As shown in the chart below, Alexei has only swung and missed one time on a strike thrown in the upper third
of the zone. As pitches start to cross lower in the zone, Ramirez swings and misses much more often,
specifically on low and away sliders deep in the count. However, Alexei does a good job at jumping on
the first pitch, which has resulted in 16 of his 72 hits this year.
It seems clear that Rick Hahn is spending time to focus on the small things that are unnoticeable to the fans,
but make an impact over the duration of a season. The White Sox are fifth in the league in runs scored, but
are also at the top of the league in strikeouts. The data shows where batters are struggling from on the offensive
side, but it then needs to be implemented by the players in order to see positive results.
NOTE: All statistics accurate as of 06/01/14
By Danny Malter
AriBall.com
