The second spot

In a lineup seeimingly sodden with .210 hitters, Ozzie finally did something to try and shake the batters up. Like Tony LaRussa's move to put Carlton Fisk in the two-hole of the '83 Sox lineup, Carlos Quinten -the suprise in the lineup- is now batting 2d behind leadoff batter Orlando Cabrera.

The season started nicely. Although Jerry Owens had won the leadoff spot before injuries shelved him, Nick Swisher stepped in and was getting on almost half the times he came up. Although not a natural leadoff hitter, he performed well the first two weeks of the season.

But then, like last year, the Sox bats stopped hitting. The batting averagres of some of the players are almost jokes (or mirror images of their avgerages last year)= certain starters avgerages read like this = .196, .197, .209, .215, and .220. Ughh!! Now, the OBA's of these players do partially make up for it - but the clutch hits of the open weeks are long gone.

There are bright spots. No major injuries like last year. Pitching, both starting and pen, has been great - seems this is gonna be a more than great year for pitching, even if Gavin Floyd doesn't finally nail down a no hitter this year. Defense has also been great.

But despite the more than good news on the other accounts - there is no hitting. Sure, lots of walks. But this team is in trouble if we cannot score any runs. Last year it just seemed like the whole team lolled around waiting for the bats to start - never. And there is that danger again this year -waiting around.

And the team must NOT wait around.

Sluggers Konerko and Thome - despite the occasional massive homer - are again having dive years. Second baseman Juan Uribe Still hasn't worn out his welcome, although he must be on his last legs. Crede and Dye - station to station hitters. This team relies too much on the home run and the big inning. Off season moves to improve the offense and increase the number of baserunners garnered Swisher and Cabrera but has not resulted in a renewed offense power.

Answers? Speed on the basepaths?

I'm not sure that Jerry Owens is the answer. Although he has potential 60 steal speed, there doesn't seem to be a spot in the lineup for him. Quentin has solidified his spot (league leader in HR's, 3d in slugging, 4th in runs scored, 5th in RBI's) and Dye and Swisher are only going to sit if they are injured.

Outside of a mjor restructering of the offense, I fear that the offense will have problems all year. Somehow in 2005 this team overcame offensive woes of this exact sort - but one can see how badly a team can play if it can't get past it's offensive woes.

We need speed.