The Twins are talking about AL pitching catching up to Ford, whose tendency to pull the ball they see as exploitable by opponents. The fact that they are talking about this publicly would indicate that it is common knowledge and that they expct his performance to suffer a hit of some kind, at least until the work Ford is doing with hitting coach Scott Ulger shows results. Hopefully those results will not be a messed up swing and serious problems for Ford.
Anybody have any comparable information? I just signed him for 3 years in my contract league. If he's already getting worked over, I need to know now so I can move him before I'm stuck with his salary while he's in the minors - or worse.
Not saying he's going to crash, but he was never a big prospect was he? Seems to me like I remember Gardenhire talking about how surprised he was that Ford played so well last year.
How would anyone know if the pitching is catching up to Ford? Not to say it isn't but I think we need more than ST and 2 in-season games before rushing to judgement.
Where is that quote taken from?
Maine has a good swing for a pitcher but on anything that moves, he has no chance. And if it's a fastball, it has to be up in the zone. Basically, the pitcher has to hit his bat. - Mike Pelfrey
From April to August his BA got worse every month. September was only a 4 point jump from August, and his OBA in September was his second worst month all year. I think he had beginner's luck in his first trip through the league. In 2002 in the minors he was a pretty good hitter though, same with 2003 when he also spent a month and a half in the majors with a .329 BA and a .402 OBA. He was 26/27 years old by that time though. But he can still get on base, and should steal you some bases, so I wouldn't worry THAT much. But I wouldn't be expecting a BA better than .275 this season which puts him down around Shannon Stewart and Jeromy Burnitz value-wise. If he has to make major changes to his swing though... who knows.
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KFFL.com via Yahoo! player update thingy wrote:Apr 6 The Minneapolis Star-Tribune's La Velle E. Neal III reports Minnesota Twins DH Lew Ford is working with MAN Ron Gardenhire, who believes Ford could be slipping as the rest of the league figures out his swinging tendencies. "He hasn't been swinging like he can," Gardenhire said. "He's not on the ball but he should be fine. Lew is going to have to make adjustments. The league is starting to adjust to him. I don't want to start talking about what the adjustments are in the papers."
I just gave Ford up in order to pick up Rowand on waivers. They are the same type of player, but I think Rowand may have a better chance at doing well from this news.
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by StlSluggers » Thu Apr 07, 2005 9:30 am 
who knows.
