I could never stand the alcoholic asshat, but didn't LaRussa try this even earlier with McGuire during his hayday?
Holy crap, CB Bucknor is getting ST practice too? I can't believe he called it fair. eta: it's ST for Blummer too...he called Leon "Zach (or Jack) Daniels" twice.
Not to mention he gets lots of protection so they can't just throw him junk and get to the next batter especially if Altuve gets on base first.
Chas hit even better when he had protection last season. The fact he did what he did with Dubon, Maldy, Pena, or Meyers, shows that he pretty much did it on his own.
Exactly. Chas had 50+ PAs at 4 different lineup spots Batting 5th (77 PA) = 1.123 OPS Batting 6th (140) = .640 OPS Batting 7th (127) = .852 OPS Batting 8th (60) = .930 OPS 5th was his best spot, but outside of that the lower he hit in the order the better he performed.
You are correct that Yordan "is in scoring position anytime he steps in the box". That's not the point. The point is (at least it is to me) is to have as many men on base as possible when he steps in the box. Hitting him 3rd, in this lineup, has worked, enough so that they won the WS two yrs ago. We don't need to go back and forth on this as I respect (and can appreciate) the thought process of putting him in the two hole. That said, hitting him 3rd, is in NO WAY "old school" thinking.
This has always been the concept behind the clean-up hitter at 4 in the order. As time goes on, the loss of PAs has changed to moving the RBI down to third. I remember how shocked I was the first time Bagwell hit in the 3 hole, so it's not that long since the early analytics began affecting at least some games. Continuing that to the 2 hole is just a continuation of that trend. The other adjustment appears to be analytics in deciding who the best batter is for certain desired outcomes. OBP vs BA, SLG vs RBI and the OPS and OPS+ calculations for determining the best overall hitter. I have been an advocate for optimizing a line-up with this (Old timers are probably tired of this): spots 2 through 9 can be read Highest REMAINING 1. Highest OPS+ hits 3 2. Highest OPS+ hits 4 3. Highest OBP hits 1 4. Highest OBP hits 2 5. Highest SLG hits 5 6. Highest SLG hits 6 7. Highest OBP hits 7 8. Highest OBP hits 8 9. Highest OBP hits 9 Those who do engage in discussing this idea usually skip the conceptual and move straight to the adjustments to fit the players. Every move up the Batting order should result in one extra PA every 9 games. This might trigger moving the batter who would have hit 2 to move all the way down to 9, rather than 6 in the batting order in order to retain the chances of having batters on base for Altuve and Yordan after the 1st inning.
No. My point is that it is patently false that Chas has proven he would be better in the middle of the lineup with better protection.
Can we please sign just one more SP? JV is old and we need to be careful and easy with him. Sorry but I just don't consider two guys recovering from surgeries coming back post All Star Break as additional depth to rely on this season. My gut tells me McCullers is one setback away from being done for his career. Luis Garcia is more of a guy I'm looking at for 2025 to be fully back, not this year. WE NEED ONE MORE.
