I actually think Swisher will end up going back to his what he was doing last season. He's young still and I sincerely doubt he's going to hit this wall permanently. I think he needs to be told to forget about the OBP stat, he either goes up there and will take 2 strikes or perhaps 3 or he's going to go up there and swing at 3 balls. He needed to go with the "swing at every hittable strike" approach until he proved he could handle something a little more sophisticated.
For those familiar with the Rob Mackowiak experience in center field, Swisher is well above that mark. In his brief time in the corners for the Sox and what little I saw of him for the A's, he actually appears to be a rather good corner OFer, plays the foul wall real well and just overall looked very comfortable as opposed to center. At first base, he really wasn't as good as advertised. Some say he didn't get enough reps there to show what kind of 1B he is, and that may be the case. What I saw was, in overall value, an inferior defender to Paul Konerko. Swisher definitely has more range on ground balls and has the ability to make some pretty improvisational plays, but he lacks in other areas. For the White Sox (I emphasize for the White Sox), he seemed to be unable to consistently handle the low throw (which Paul Konerko is in fact excellent at doing) and also was average but not near Konerko on those hard hit and reactionary liners and grounders.
