Frank Thomas swings a mean (hockey) stick at the United Center

Frank Thomas breaks down Gordon Beckham’s swing

J.J. Stankevitz:

Gordon Beckham showed some progress Wednesday, collecting an RBI single through the left side in the sixth. But that hit was only his fourth of the season, and it saved him from sustaining a batting average below .100.

I had the chance to sit down with Frank Thomas for Beckham’s fourth-inning at-bat — a weak flyout to right — to pick the Big Hurt’s brain on the second baseman’s struggles. Here’s what he had to say as the at-bat went on, with images of Beckham’s swing below: …

Is Paul Konerko sending a message to Alex Rios?

Gonzales @ CT:

Paul Konerko recalled how he salvaged his 2003 season, when he batted .197 in a poor first half but elected to make some changes under new hitting coach Greg Walker and raised his average by 37 points.

It’s tough because in the second half, I felt I was as good as any hitter in the field, and you look up and you’re hitting .220,” Konerko said. “But I told myself I’m going to survive. People need to gain a little perspective on the outside.”

And it may be working:

Alex Rios said he’s started the process of revamping his batting stance in an effort to resurrect his production.

Rios, who didn’t start for the White Sox on Friday night for the second consecutive game, said he has moved his hands away from the middle of his body and said he will continue this if he feels aggressive and comfortable.

This is the start of a process that Rios hopes won’t require the entire offseason to get comfortable with. …

Frank Thomas suggested to Rios to change his batting stance last Sunday:

For Rios, on the other hand, Thomas suggested an entire overhaul of his plate approach.

“Right now, he’s fighting himself,” Thomas said. “For me, I would change that stance. We talked about it the other day. There’s nothing wrong with going in the cage and messing around with it. We saw one of the most successful players to ever play this game, Cal Ripken, he had a new stance every week. I told Alex, the bottom line is hitting the baseball. Go in the cage and figure something out, Get comfortable, because he’s not comfortable right now.”

Other White Sox links:

• James looks at the 4-game sweep the Sox received from New York.
• John Autin at B-R posts the leaderboards of the teams that didn’t issue and the teams that weren’t issued walks.
• David Pinto looks for the reason Carlos Quentin gets hit by pitches so much.

Frank Thomas tells Alex Rios what to do

Thomas on slumping #WhiteSox CF Alex Rios: "He's fighting himself. For me, I would change that stance. We talked about it the other day"—
Scot Gregor (@scotgregor) July 31, 2011

J.J. explains Phil Humber’s success [UPDATE]

Stankevitz @ BL:

Humber’s two best pitches this season have been his 12-6 curveball and his straight changeup. Since entering the rotation, he’s thrown his curveball on 24.6 percent of pitches; his changeup, 22.1 percent. Humber’s effectiveness with his curveball has been key in his turnaround, as it’s gone from a good to a great pitch. …

Other White Sox links: FutureSox looks at Mike Blanke’s promotion A+ Winston-Salem, Kenny Williams believes in the White Sox but doesn’t think anything he says matters and doesn’t plan on trading John Danks, Frank Thomas says Adam Dunn needs to play the field more, Ozzie Guillen says John Danks’ 0-8 start is 80% the fault of the offense, and A.J. Pierzynski gave Minnie Driver a few tips for throwing the first pitch in yesterday’s game: No windup and aim high (go to the 7:40 point)! And Minnie was wearing #11 when she threw the game’s first pitch (video). The ladies love Omar!

UPDATE: More Minnie:

http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?c_id=cws&content_id=15630563 (1:26)

First video:

http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?c_id=cws&content_id=15500495 (0:30)

One more:

http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?c_id=cws&content_id=16468343 (1:46)

Steve Stone explains what’s behind the White Sox hitting slumps

WSCR AM670:

“The reality is that we have a lot of guys on this team that just absolutely refuse to take walks,” Steve Stone said on the Boers and Bernstein Show. “I mean, you’ve got Brent Morel, who’s going to be a very good player, but he hasn’t had a walk this year. You can get to three balls on [A.J.] Pierzynski, but he’s going to swing at it if it stays in the ball park. Juan Pierre is a swinging leadoff hitter, he’s not a walking leadoff hitter. [Alexei] Ramirez is very difficult to walk.

“So we have a lineup full of guys that swing the bat. When they’re hitting the baseball and they’re finding holes, then the team, you know, will put together a lot of hits and a lot of runs. But the teams that have consistently a lot of runs scored, are patient teams who get the starters out of there around the sixth inning because they’re up to 100 pitches because they’ve taken some walks, because they’ve run the counts deep, and our guys, historically, have not taken walks. And when you’re hitting that’s fine. When you’re not hitting, you’re putting a lot of pitchers-pitches in play.”

Audio at the link.

Other White Sox links: James looks at the Sox clutch hitting and says Happy Birthday to Frank Thomas (Happy Birthday Frank!), and FutureSox’ hot and cold prospects include Brazilian righty Andre Rienzo.

SoxFest Day 2 tweets

Ballantini: Rick Hahn basically says White Sox will never offer a Cliff Lee-type contract to a P: “We can allocate resources in better ways”

Ballantini: Hahn on sabermetrics: It’s a factor in our decisionmaking but we dont mind othr people not thinking so. They dont need to see behind curtain

Cowley: KW asked about good and bad trades – said he thought his best was going to be Bartolo in 2003.

Gonzales: Fan asks if frank t considered as hitting coach. Oz: NO! Says coaches don’t make enough $ and frank can’t take heat — Ballantini: Says coaches don’t get paid enough, and you need to be a very bad hitter to be a hitting coach. Frank’s hitting came too naturally.

Frank Thomas: It will come down to next week’s 3-game set against Minnesota

No Frank. We’re 6 games back. Even if we sweep the 3 games against Minnesota, we’d be 3 games back. The division was lost when the Sox decided to punt on Jim Thome and let Minnesota grab him. Look at the Sox DH production and the Twinkies DH production. The Twinkies have a 131 split OPS+ and the Sox a 92. And if the Twinkies didn’t have Jim Thome to play at DH when Morneau went down, their other DH option, Kubel, has a split OPS+ of 86.

And in today’s pregame show Bill Melton said something like ‘ the Andruw Jones, Mark Kotsay and Dayan Viciedo combo has given the same numbers as Jim Thome.’ No. Not even close. Look at the DH links above.

Wimpy returns. UPDATE: Big Frank too!

Gonzales:

Tom Paciorek will work with analyst Steve Stone on Tuesday night’s telecast. Play-by-play announcer Ken Harrelson will attend to a family matter.

UPDATE: The plot thickens! Wimpy will replace Hawk not only on Tuesday but Wednesday and Thursday too. And Frank Thomas will also replace Steve Stone Wednesday and Thursday.

Frank Thomas’ statue to be unveiled next season

whitesox.com:

Following the retirement of his uniform No. 35 earlier today, the Chicago White Sox announced that a life-sized sculpture of franchise legend Frank Thomas will be unveiled on the outfield concourse next season.

Thomas becomes the eighth White Sox great immortalized in bronze at the ballpark. Sculptures of club founder Charles A. Comiskey and Cuban great Orestes “Minnie” Minoso were unveiled in 2004. Carlton Fisk’s sculpture was installed in 2005, while the famous double-play duo of Luis Aparicio and Nellie Fox was honored with sculptures in 2006. In 2007, a sculpture of White Sox pitching star Bill Pierce was unveiled on the concourse near centerfield, and Harold Baines received the honor in 2008.

Frank Thomas will replace Steve Stone this weekend at the TV booth

For the 3-game series (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) at the Kansas City Royals:

Frank Thomas is going to fill in for Steve Stone in the White Sox’ TV booth this weekend. On Aug. 29, the Sox are going to retire Thomas’ uniform No. 35 before playing the Yankees.

CSN’s ‘Inside Look: Frank Thomas’ (full program video)

Part One (9:03), Part Two (4:34), Part Three (7:12), Part Four (2:27)

Frank Thomas on being a White Sox ambassador (video)

Big Hurt TV Video: http://www.csnchicago.com/07/29/10/Big-Hurt-TV-How-Frank-can-make-a-good-am/landing.html?blockID=280068&feedID=621 (4:43)

Big Frank says one of his things should be bringing him in when players are in a slump and he’ll get under their skin, irritate them and get them hitting.

And Bill Melton says being an ambassador can be what the ambassador wants. So, he can do the hitting slump thing.

Get on it Frank!

Frank Thomas says White Sox should add a starting pitcher (video)

Video: http://www.csnchicago.com/07/28/10/Big-Hurt-TV-What-trade-should-the-Sox-ma/landing.html?blockID=279336&feedID=621 (2:27)

Frank Thomas, hitting coach?

The Big Teacher?

Thomas, the greatest hitter in  Sox’s history, said he’s always lent his advice to the Sox’s hitters.

“I always give advice to hitters,” Thomas said. “The last five years of my career I helped a lot of young guys. It’s a growing process. I understand it now. My first 10 years it was hard to do that because I was so focused and driven. But as time wore on, I did realize that young guys do need a little help because it’s a transition from Triple-A to the major leagues.”

Big Frank was named a White Sox ambassador today.