Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
January 25, 2005
Iguchi Goochy Goo

The White Sox are about to add Tadahito Iguchi to their roster, their second Japanese import in two seasons. Iguchi will play second base.

At SoxFest earlier this month, Williams told a crowd of about 1,000 fans that the way they embraced reliever Shingo Takatsu last season was a big topic of discussion among Japanese players looking to play in the major leagues.

And because of the way the fans treated Takatsu, the Sox also might have received a discount on Iguchi.

I don't know about that. My guess is that there wasn't as much interest as Iguchi might have believed. Take a look at Tadahito's stats. There's a huge jump in production at age 28, way out of line with the rest of his career. Why? This post suggests that shoulder surgery corrected a problem. I've never heard of surgery making you that much better, especially a few years into your career. I'm very skeptical of this player's last two seasons being real.

This paragraph especially made me laugh.

The signing continues the Sox' overhaul by adding more speed. They likely have become the fastest team in the major leagues.

Iguchi and Podsednik make you the fastest team in the majors? I tend to equate speed with youth or Rickey Henderson. Podesnick is 29, Iguchi 30. Speedy Jermaine Dye is 31. Pierzynski is a catcher, so I doubt there's much speed there. Juan Uribe is young, but look how his base stealing deteriorated under Guillen! He was 19 for 23 through 2003, 9 for 20 in 2004. Picking your spots is much more important to successful base stealing than raw speed.

And all that speed doesn't matter if you're players don't get on base. Again, I don't believe Iguchi's last two seasons are real. I think he'll be lucky to do as well as Kaz Matsui did in 2004 with a .331 OBA. That's not a great number for a #2 hitter. Podsednik had one great year and one bad year; he did draw a decent amount of walks in the minors, but his OBA was only around 340. I have to believe his bad year is closer to his actual abilities. Uribe has a .307 career OBA. Dye hasn't had a good OBA since 2001. These guys better be fast, because they're going to need to cover a lot of ground the few times they get on base.

I'm sorry, I don't see a fast team here. I see a team that's stocking up on players just past their primes, who never had great primes in the first place. They'll need a lot of power from Konerko, Thomas and Everett to overcome the lack of baserunners due to the speedsters.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:20 AM | Free Agents | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Don't underestimate Rowand and his potential 30-30 ability. As a White Sox fan, I don't buy the "fastest team in the major leagues." I do buy the fact that their team is significantly faster than it was last year. I also buy the fact that their bullpen and rotation have significantly improved. I just hope these players can get on base, as you mentioned. With Willie Harris, they are replacing one of the few players on the team who has the ability to draw walks.

Posted by: Rob at January 25, 2005 09:10 AM

My question is: is a fast team something to boast about? Even if the White Sox had baseball's fastest team, WHO CARES? OBA, SLG, OPS, BB, are all more important then "fast". This kind of goes with the whole infatuation with Juan Pierre a couple of years ago. He's fast! He makes things happen! Bullpoop. Look at the guy's numbers - he was never any good. Just like some of these "fast" White Sox. Podesnick for Lee? OUCH! Talk about a horrendous trade!

Posted by: sabernar at January 25, 2005 09:44 AM

As a Brewers fan, I congratulate the White Sox's effort in trading for speed. We'll keep sending you speed if you keep sending solid corner outfielders 2 hours north.

Posted by: Adw at January 25, 2005 10:30 AM

Podesnick for Lee straight up would have been a horrendous trade. However, the trade was Podesnick and Luis Visciano and a PTBNL for Lee. And, really, it was much more than that - Lee was moved to create payroll room. With that payroll room, the Sox added Pierzynski, Orlando Hernandez and Tadahito Iguchi. I know it doesn't really mean anything, but Sox fans are almost unanimously very happy with this off season, something that never happens.

Posted by: Adam at January 25, 2005 10:30 AM

You say a number of times that you don't think Iguchi's last two seasons are real.

What does that mean? I look at the stats you linked to, and I see a player growing who had his best two seasons in the two seasons he got the most playing time. Do people get better with age? Ask Barry Bonds or Randy Johnson. I'm not saying you're wqrong, and this is or is not a good move for the WhiteSox, I'm jsut curious how you can ignore two consecutive seasons and say they're not "real". What are they, then? A 2-year long streak?

Posted by: bbstucco at January 25, 2005 01:24 PM

What does that say about White Sox fans?

Posted by: Luca Brasi at January 25, 2005 01:25 PM

Those two seasons are totally out of context given his career path. It could be a number of things. He could have used performance enhancing drugs. He could have pulled a Sammy Sosa and discovered plate discipline. I don't know. But when I suddenly see a 28-year-old go from medicore to great, a big red flag goes up. Maybe it's real; for White Sox fans sake I hope so.

Posted by: David Pinto at January 25, 2005 01:34 PM

The biggest mistake the Sox made this offseason was absolutely the move from last year to sign Everett. I've actually gone to games to first boo Everett in the OF and second cheer on the team.

Posted by: James Mason at January 25, 2005 11:48 PM
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