It’s an unreasonable presumption, obviously, but after what’s likely the longest stretch of games that anyone from Chicago has seen or paid attention to him, the newest-latest White Sox infielder is 1-21 with no walks and two strikeouts. He’s made it harder to hide his offense by displaying his below-average range in the field and booted a tough hopper at first base Saturday, allowing a run to score. By the end of the day, there was some light booing coming his way for routine groundouts

This isn’t much in the way of horrifying revelations for Keppinger. His appeal as a defender is that he can be playable at multiple positions, not that he can be good at any one in particular. A spray chart full of rolled-over grounders to the left side and weak fly balls to right field show a hitter pretty solidly out-of-sync in his first week, even if nothing about his early contact rates suggests anything serious. Robin Ventura suggested the weather as a factor, which is a new one. Rationalizations based on waiting for the Chicago weather to normalize are…interesting.

But this is a besides the point. Keppinger is likely fine. What’s of interest is him placing an awful-looking slump right at the start of the season when his role on the team is as destabilized as possible. The length of Keppinger’s contract always suggested that he could slide into a super-sub role, but if he continues to scuffle while Conor Gillaspie rides the lightning of his shocking spring training, it only allows for Ventura to further explore the idea of a third base platoon. Sunday served as a bit of a “You look like you could use a day off,” game for Keppinger, but was also a day off against a right-handed starter. Not a bad idea for those to continue and the White Sox surely noted his platoon splits before signing him.

The lack of instant stability provided from Keppinger is also under more scrutiny due to his spot in the order. The No. 2 spot has been a sinkhole for too long and Jeff Manto’s effusive praise toward Gordon Beckham and Alexei Ramirez (who batted second on Sunday) suggest neither is much more than a hot couple of weeks away from grabbing a larger role away from someone who hasn’t proved they deserve theirs.

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However, while we’re here just watching games and watching Tyler Flowers, there’s no harm in discussing what we’ve seen, provided we remain at the level of noting our observations and holding off on inferences. I will say, it’s probably unlikely he finishes the season hitting .571/.700/1.429.

First of all, the White Sox coaching staff has hinted at what everyone should be looking for in regards to Tyler.

“From the hitting sessions supervised by Manto, assistant hitting coach Harold Baines and even manager Robin Ventura, at times, Manto spoke of the adjustments made by Flowers all offseason to keep his back side from collapsing. Flowers had been sending Manto video of his workouts from the past few months, and Manto would make suggestions and critiques.”

Back in August of 2011, when Flowers was getting his first substantial amount of playing time, Colin from South Side Sox put this “collapsing back side” into plain terms.

“There was good reason the Sox spent last season trying to change up his swing.  ”Pretty” is not the preferred nomenclature.  He gets good bat speed, but it’s the result of a hitch, sticking his ass out and throwing his arms at the ball.  It’s almost Uribean.”

Here’s the hitch in its prime moment. This is an opposite field double Flowers hit off Ubaldo Jimenez on Aug. 17, 2011

You can still pick out moments of Flowers hunched over now if you want. Like his home run off Ervin Santana just this past Wednesday.

That final part of the load looks to be here to stay. The changes that have been made look to be attempting to reduce the trip to get there. First of all, he starts things off bending his enormous frame into a crouch.

As recently as Aug. 11 of last year, he was darn near upright at the same point in the pitcher’s delivery.

To tack on, or as a result–I won’t pretend to know–the leg kick is quieter and quicker. Here’s Tyler dangling his hoof later in the day on Aug. 11, 2012.

On Opening Day, Flowers used a smaller stride forward that cuts off just a tad lower.

Every swing looks better when it finishes with a 400-foot bomb clearing the wall, but when so much of pre-season optimism is based on feel and environment, it’s notable that another Manto offseason project is coming out looking demonstratively different mechanically.

Flowers is an enormous man with a big load-up process, so it will be worth checking up on his mechanics and crouch throughout the year, since Dayan Viciedo has certainly demonstrated that not everything sticks upon first implementation.

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To sum up the strategy, Dunn thinks he can put more balls in play and raise his batting average if he swings earlier in the count. A few quotes reveal the specific situations that he and Jeff Manto have in mind.

From Mark Gonzales’ article from before SoxFest:

“I’ve got to be more aggressive earlier in the count,” Dunn said. “I know it sounds stupid because I try to be ready all the time. I do like to look at pitches, and sometimes it’s great. But that (3-2) is a count I don’t like. The pitcher can go so many ways.”

From the more recent Chuck Garfien profile:

“That’s going to be an emphasis this spring, just try to be more aggressive and not get myself too deep in counts,” Dunn revealed Sunday. “It’s going to be a lot harder said than done. It’s going to give me something to work on in the spring. Instead of being so selective early, especially first pitch.”

And from Manto…

“He took a lot of two-pitch strikes that probably he could have hit to left-center field. And we talked to him about it so far and he’s definitely receptive.”

He’s probably right that more aggression would reduce those strikeout totals, and who the hell are we to question Manto after he fixed Alex Rios, but at what cost would that reduction come at?

Twitter is often criticized for reducing conversation and discussion to quips and sound bites, but as @whitesoxfanjim shows here, it’s also a perfect way to express a simple concern with precision.

@chuckgarfien Dunn’s plate discipline and ability to work counts is his greatest strength as a hitter. No reason to mess with that.

— whitesoxfanjim (@whitesoxfanjim) February 17, 2013

Dunn’s problem isn’t that he takes too many strikes. De Aza, Rios, & PK swing at fewer % of strikes. He’s just a bad contact hitter.

— whitesoxfanjim (@whitesoxfanjim) February 17, 2013

Dunn’s at least right about the first pitch thing, since he slugged over .700 when he swung at the first thing he saw in 2012. However, that probably says more about how much of a meatball someone has to throw to Adam Dunn to get him to swing at the first pitch, than the benefits of a larger-scale aggressive approach.

Dunn’s also right about not feeling comfortable in 3-2 counts, since no one can hit .118 across 157 full count plate appearances and really assert that he’s comfortable. His .424 OBP in that scenario sounds nice, but is still below league-average.

However, blaming Dunn’s strikeout problems on his patience is a bit of a fallacy. Perhaps in the days before that 2009 article where Dunn started mulling being more aggressive, it was right on, but ever since then the percentage of Dunn’s strikeouts (20% in 2010, 24% in 2011 and 2012) that have come looking have been below or around league average.

Obviously, when someone strikes out 222 times, 24% of that is still more than anyone else in baseball is striking out looking, but unleashing someone with the fourth-worst contact rate to swing more isn’t necessarily a good two-strike strategy, either.

As Jim put it, Dunn’s decidedly mediocre rate stats in what was supposed to be a comeback year last season (.333 OBP/.469 SLG) places him clearly in “adapt or die” territory. He can’t afford to slowly slip away using the old methods, but setting out with an approach reliant on more contact, and hitting against infield shifts that have completely brutalized him in recent years, looks every bit as barren and treacherous. The reality of his decline from what was–even in his prime–an extremely low rate of contact, may be unavoidable.

Follow James Fegan on Twitter @JRFegan