Loading ...From his blog:
FOR THOSE WONDERING: Yes, Brandon Phillips will be the team’s clean-up hitter again this year.
My response…”WHY?”
And, no, Chris Dickerson doesn’t have left field firmly wrapped in his fingers. That’s why Jacque Jones, Jonny Gomes and Laynce Nix are in camp.
Don’t those names just strike fear into the heart of opposing pitchers.
SOME INTERESTING managers and coaches in the system: David Bell, son of former major-league manager and player Buddy Bell, is managing Cincinnati’s new Double-A team in Carolina. Tom Browning is his pitching coach.
Delino DeShields, who stole 463 major-league bases, is the hitting coach at Class A Billings and former major-league pitcher Bob Forsch, who owns two major-league no-hitters, is the Billings pitching coach.
And an entire new staff in Dayton…
Baker is a terrible fiit for this team. My biggest fear is he will blow out Volquez and Cueto by ignoring pitch counts like he did late last year in meaningless ballgames. Phillips is above average offensively for a 2B but he is well below average for a cleanup hitter. Dusty, please get your fat head outta your ass.
Does anyone here doubt that if Patterson were still on the roster he’d be making excuses for last year’s horrible performance and slotting him as the everyday leftfielder?
Dusty, you suck. Go away and don’t come back.
I think most of us agree that Phillips isn’t a clean-up hitter – but WHO would you put there in this lineup… They don’t have that big bat, maybe Votto or Bruce can provide enough power, but they are each young and unproven…
I blame Dusty for a lot of things, but this one is hard to blame him for…
I have no problem putting EE in the 4 spot, between Bruce and Votto. Phillips should be hitting 6 or so…
If you must split up the lefties with a righty, do it with Edwin. With Phillips in the #4 spot you are just taking away RBI chances from your #5 hitter with an out machine in your clean up spot.
I just try to reassure myself that, in the long run, the most batting order can cost you (statistically) is a win or two.
I agree with Jason. That’s what I keep telling myself, too.
However, it’s just so frustrating to see Phillips in that cleanup spot. I like Phillips. I like him a lot. He’s a very nice player who does some things very well.
But a cleanup hitter, he’s not.
The “Reds” have a lot of “Young Talent”!!! Maybe Baker will open his eyes and one will get a chance to prove to them that Young Talent should not be on the bench..
Phillips is in the cleanup spot because Dusty sees ONE 30/30 season on the back of his baseball card. They obviously don’t list GIDP’s on the back of baseball cards. (Encarnacion = 27 the past 3 years; Phillips 26 in 2007 alone)
Encarnacion has outhit him 2 of the past 3 years, including last year. Put EE in the #4 spot ahead of Bruce and watch the clutch hits keep on rolling on.
The lineup tool I’ve posted on here a couple of times…it estimates that the “best lineup” for this team is one with Dickerson (363obp assumed) leading off, Phillips hitting 6th, and Baker taking a page out of Larussa’s book by batting Taveras 9th. That estimation adds 0.3 R/G over the “Baker lineup” which over the course of a 162-game season is 48.6 runs.
A simple lineup tweak could push run production from 700 runs (2008 production) to 750 runs without even adding a player. IF Bruce has a breakout year, you’re looking at run production in the 750-800 range, which is easily above average and makes this team over .500 with an improvement in the starting pitchers results (i.e. Harang and the #5 spot.)
“Batting order doesn’t matter” is not accurate, IMHO. Batting order is less important than getting the right/best 8 guys in the order, but situating guys in the right (or wrong) spot can definitely impact the team’s chances of winning.
IMO Taveras shouldn’t be a lock in CF. They could probably get a boost on offense and not lose much on defense by using Dickerson in CF and using a power-platoon in LF.
Agreed Chad.
My hope is that he’ll succeed although it doesn’t seem likely. I’d much rather have Edwin in there but I guess at the same time hoping for a rebound season and then demanding he take all the pressure might be a little too much. Same reasoning for not playing Votto or Bruce there just yet.
Aaron…..come on. What dictates a meaningless game? How many pitches should the average pitcher throw in a meaningless game? Is more than 80 too much? Baker treated Cueto pretty well in terms of pitch count. Volquez he had to lean on because the ace of the staff was hurt. Pretty much every game last year for the Reds was meaningless.
>> IMO Taveras shouldn’t be a lock in CF.
I 100% agree. He is THE WORST OPTION out of the 10+ players the Reds have to play OF
Bruce, Ward, Gomez, and Nix are locks to out produce Taveras by a mile.
Jones, Keppinger, Hairston, and Dickerson would really have to have bad years to be as bad as Taveras.
taveras is arguably one of the worst hitters in baseball. He IS NEAR PATTERSON LEVEL!
Here is a list that shows how painful it will be all season watching Baker start this joke.
Worst career OPS+ for CF with at least 2000 PA
72 TAVERAS
75 Endy Chavez
79 PATTERSON
84 Pierre
89 D Roberts
93 Payton
94 Crisp
94 Mathews
and at least Pierre and Roberts have OBP over .340. The rest don’t.
We are talking Brain Hunter/Darren Lewis territory.
I just try to reassure myself that, in the long run, the most batting order can cost you (statistically) is a win or two.
That might be true if being in the clean-up spot didn’t change the mentality of the hitter. You need a hitter who either fits the role of a clean-up hitter or whose approach at the plate will not be affected by being in that role. Phillips is neither.
i like brandon phillips.
excellent defense, good power, good speed.
he’s not a #4 hitter.
he should be hitting 6 or 7.
but… who should be hitting #4? i agree, the only option if you insisit on splitting up votto and bruce (and i’m still not so sure that you HAVE to do that) is probably e5e5. it’s not pretty.
I don’t get it. Phillips should be leading off because HE’S FAST!!!! HAVOC MFers!
I think Doug and Greg hit it. If you have to split the left handed bats, EE is the better option.
How Dusty splits the outfield at bats is going to be very interesting. Wonder if he will give Taveras as much time to produce (or not produce) as he gave Patterson?
BP last year as a #4 hitter- .274 BA .326 OBP .477 SLG .802 OPS.
Votto last year as a #4 hitter – .308 BA .438 OBP .569 SLG 1.007 OPS.
I swear…Every time Dust opens his mouth…I go look in the mirror & say to myself;”If that idiot can manage a MLB team…What the hell happened to you???”
I don’t know any of you guys, form ADAM…But I’d damn well bet ANY of you could manage this club to a better record than DoucheBag.
I think EE is more likely to make an out than BP. Why not bat Votto and Bruce 2 and 4 with BP and EE 3 and 5 respively. That makes more sense to me.
“I think EE is more likely to make an out than BP. ”
Why? For three straight seasons (BP’s tenure in Cincinnati), BP has made more outs (and a higher out rate) than EE.
Encarnacion has outhit Phillips for 2 of the last 3 seasons for the sole reason that he makes less outs than Phillips.
Last 3 Yrs BA OBP SLG OPS
Phillips .276 .323 .453 .776
Encarnacion .272 .351 .458 .809