White Sox hitting coach Marcus Thames keeps it simple in spring: ‘Swing at good pitches’

GLENDALE, Ariz. — What to make of spring training stats?

In two words, not much.

For first-year White Sox hitting coach Marcus Thames, it’s more about quality of at-bats, which he notes on his scorecard, than the at-bats that go into box scores.

And what to make of a spring training lineup?

In three words, usually not much. Although manager Pedro Grifol allowed that his Cactus League batting order in Monday’s 5-2 win over the Diamondbacks — Andrew Benintendi, Yoan Moncada, Luis Robert Jr., Eloy Jimenez, Andrew Vaughn, Paul DeJong, Kevin Pillar, Martin Maldonado, Nicky Lopez — looks like what he has in mind for when the real games begin March 28.

Grifol said he was excited to see it. He wants to see its rhythm and flow, he said.

“That rhythm is really important to us,” he said. “Everybody setting up the next guy and what we need to do, [Thames has] got a really good feel for that. Everybody has a job to do and everybody has to stay within their means.”

Rhythm and flow are one thing, drawing walks, not chasing pitches out of the strike zone, raising on-base percentage and driving the ball are another. In Cactus League games, Thames is keeping track of “the quality of the at-bat,” unconcerned about results.

“I just want to make sure our guys are swinging at good pitches,” he said. “If you don’t do that now, you can’t start on March 28.”

Chasing was a thing – a bad thing – for the Sox last season. They were the worst team at swinging at pitches out of the zone and they were last in walks. The Sox’ third hitting coach in three years following Frank Menechino and Jose Castro, wants to change that.

May the force be with you.

It doesn’t come with a snap of the finger with multiple players having issues in the past.

“It’s just buy-in, making sure we’re doing our homework on the opposing pitcher,” Thames said. “Our guys have to understand their strengths and that’s what we’re going to hammer. Every person’s going to know who they are as a hitter and what they do well and we’re really going to attack that. And if a guy makes a mistake, we’ll get him.

“But at the same time, we’ve got to focus on what we do well. And making sure guys are doing their homework on the opposing pitcher and make sure we’re prepared before we go out there. It slows the game down once we do that.”

Thames said he likes the focus he’s seeing from hitters in the cages this spring.

“Some guys are still trying to get their timing, but overall I’ve been pleased with what I’ve seen so far,” he said.

So maybe there’s no need to over-focus on these Sox numbers 12 games into the Cactus League, from a team that was second to last in runs scored last season. But here they are: Benintendi, 3-for-13; Moncada, 5-for-15; Robert, 2-for-11; Jimenez, 10-for-20; Vaughn, 4-for-19; DeJong, 3-for-15, Pillar 5-for-20; Maldonado, 0-for-11, Lopez, 6-for-14. Few will remember any of these come April.

Perhaps more importantly, there are matters of things like situational hitting, which Thames and Grifol are pushing.

“It’s important,” Thames said. “If you guys watch the postseason, you see everybody is trying to do it. Why start then? Why can’t we start it now? So we’ve been attacking that and making that an emphasis in our BP work. Because you can’t wait until 7 o’clock at night to think about situational hitting.

“It goes in the preparation. You want to win all the games in spring training but at the same time you want to make sure we’re celebrating the wins, the things we’re talking about – the quality ABs, the situational hitting. Once we see that, [winning is] going to eventually happen.”