Hello, Joe. Say its so!

swing batter

The Sox have made the smart move and re-signed my favorite regular player for the past two seasons - Joe Crede. One year at $2.675 mil. A bargin in my book. For more than a year I had to listen to fans and media alike drone on about how awful Crede was, how he couldn't hit, blah blah blah. Say what you will, the guy hit .252 with 22 homers. Oh, and in case you didn't notice, a lot of those hits were super fuckin CLUTCH. On top of that, he is among the best defensive hot corner men in the game today. Crede rocks hard balls!

And he's only going to get better in 2006.

The reason why was summed up by The Cheat over at South Side Sox:

"Crede's swing used to be long-and-loopy, where he often dropped his back shoulder far too much. This led directly to all those weak pop-ups. The new swing, with his hands high and minimal leg kick, keeps his back shoulder from dipping and his back straighter at impact. His swing is more level, and he should make better contact. This means not only should the balls that he puts in play go for hits more often than before, but he should put more balls in play than before also. All of this should lead to a higher average, that would make his poor walk rate bearable. Hopefully the new swing will lead to more consistency too."