In his mind, White Sox third baseman Joe Crede believes he’s a solid .280-.290 hitter. But even he admits he’ll believe it more “when I actually do it.”
In his brief big-league career, Crede has been one-half horrible, one-half solid. Before the All-Star Game, Crede is a career .230 hitter. After, he’s a .279 hitter.
“It’s a matter of finding a way to get out of those slumps,” Crede said.
There is a reason Crede believes he can be a .290 hitter in the big leagues. In 737 minor-league at-bats, he hit .292. In 53 games with the Sox at the end of the 2002 season, he hit .285.
So the talent is there. It’s the mental game that can trip up so many players, and Crede said he has to learn to trust his mechanics and his swing.
Sox hitting coach Greg Walker said Crede has been able to produce what he has despite having a “flawed” swing.
Walker said Crede’s swing plane–the amount of time the bat stays in the hitting zone–was such that Crede’s timing had to be perfect.
“If you have a good swing plane, you can make adjustments on certain pitches,” Walker said.
Walker said Crede was vulnerable to certain pitches because his swing had an uphill plane and came out of the hitting zone too soon.
“His timing had to be perfect to hit certain pitches,” Walker said. “It wasn’t as though [Crede] didn’t know how to swing. It was that his lower half was making him move that no matter how hard he tried to work through the ball, he was under it.”
Walker said he had Crede work on different mechanics with his legs in the off-season, changing how his legs and swing work together, in an attempt to level out his plane.
“He’s so talented and so strong that if he puts a good swing on the ball, he’s going to hit his share of home runs, especially in our ballpark,” Walker said.
