
I've been saying that for at least 2 years now and even the A's conditioning
guru told Jose he was carrying too much weight and losing some would help
his back.Although I don't for one second believe Jose used steroids,his
back problems are very similar to problems alot of steroid users experience
because they are simply carrying too much weight on their frame(see Jeff
Bregel ex 49er as a textbook example), and IMHO Jose is too big for his
frame.



I can't imagine how to estimate bat speed, but its pretty obvious that
Jose is missing fastballs he used to hit, likely due to his back.



I don't know, he had an even more open stance when he first came up with
the A's, and had no problems with it then. It might be that pre-back
problems, he was quick enough to cover up any deficiencies the stance
caused, but now he's lost just enough bat speed that the stance hurts
him. The old saying if you're hot its a trigger mechanism, if you're
cold, its a hitch. 


The biggest problem IMHO is he never has found a stance he's comfortable
with for more than a few months. He changes his stance so much, he loses
track of where the strike zone is. In Wednesday's night game, he was 
clearly mad at strike calls on both corners that looked pretty good to
me. I think he no longer knows where the strike zone really is because
he's changed his stance so much.

I'm also a bit concerned that because he's got Palmer and Gonzalez hitting
all the homeruns, he'll become competitive, swing even harder and screw
himself up even worse. LaRussa always said that Canseco's famous batting
practice homer shows did him more harm than good as they encouraged
bad hitting habits.


