chico ruiz
Member
there's more to it than just l-r-l-r-l-r order. you have to look at what the reds have available on the roster and their individual proven abilities. you don't have to be gene mauch to see what dusty is doing with frazier. 'trying to do,' is probably more accurate. todd must see the ball fairly well because he has a .330 obp. and he's going to bust it on every batted ball. i don't know how it's going to work out. but, if it means he's going to see less off speed stuff, i'm for it. putting bruce in the #4 spot? i don't know where to start with this misguided idea. he's another guy that gives maximum effort. busts it down the line, and i appreciate that more than most fans i know. but, jay k's a lot. a whole lot. 2nd in the national league. on pace to whiff close to 200 times. so, you stuff all your left-handed hitters into the top of the order? are you suggesting that be the batting order for a majority of the 162 games? more flexibility from baker might be a discussion to have, but otherwise that would be a horribly unbalanced line-up. that's the line-up card you hand to the umpire when facing kershaw, corbin, locke, gonzalez, lee, ryu, miley, or bumgarner? and those names are just off the top of my head. i've read a lot of posts on this board bemoaning how badly the reds do v. lefties. put bruce in the 4 hole, and it only gets worse. more, i haven't even mentioned how jay can disappear, for a couple weeks at a time, offensively. phillips is in the 4 hole out of necessity because, even when slumping, he hits the ball. yeah, yeah, yeah he has a tendency to roll over on the ball when he's going bad. but, i'd rather have actual contact, than a k, every time. anything can happen when the ball is put into play. and what about jay's hitting chart and the shifts that are put on him. every team, with the exception of a few, has very good bullpens now. pittsburgh has turned starters into relievers. seems like every team has 2 guys out of the pen who can throw 95+ mph. kansas city has 3 who approach 100mph. and most of the contending teams have 2 or 3 very effective lefties. that proposed line-up would be an opposing manager's dream come true.