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 the All-Star Game, he’s a .279 hitter.
Everyone goes through slumps, but when they come at the start of the season and last almost the entire first half, they become more pronounced.
“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 when things are going bad.
“As soon as I got into a slump, I changed [my mechanics],” he said. “It’s just staying with one batting stance and sticking with it.”
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. “If you have a bad swing plane, you are vulnerable to certain pitches.”
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. “Add to the fact that you lose confidence when you’re scuffling and it gets worse.”
Walker said Crede battled to get through last season, in which he hit .239. The whole year was a roller-coaster ride.
He hit .230 in April, .184 in May, .329 in June, .198 in July, .210 in August and .275 in the last month of the season.
Walker said a hitter’s swing plane is determined by the lower half of his swing. Ideally, the swing will allow the bat to stay level through the hitting zone.
“It wasn’t as though [Crede] didn’t know how to swing,” Walker said. “It was that his lower half was making him move so 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 the timing of how his legs and swing work together, in an attempt to level out his plane.
Walker doesn’t believe leveling out Crede’s swing will cost him any power. Crede hit 21 home runs last season.
“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. “Our emphasis is to create a good plane that will allow him to hit different pitches and make adjustments.”
Crede may be under the microscope at the start of the season. If he gets off to another poor start, the Sox may not be as patient as they have the last two seasons.
Second baseman Tadahito Iguchi has played shortstop and could go back there with Juan Uribe moving to third, or the Sox could move Iguchi to third if Crede continues his first-half struggles. With Iguchi learning a new league and a new country, the Sox would like to avoid moving Iguchi around.
Walker said there is no telling how good a hitter Crede could become if he levels out his swing.
“He’s hitting home runs and driving in runs with what I consider a flawed swing,” he said. “What he can do with a solid, mechanical swing we don’t know.”
