Back from Ohio. My father is still ill, but somewhat better than last week. He’s 84 and has Parkinson’s.
I want to thank you for your well wishes, both here on the blog and personally. It means a lot to me.
While I was gone, Jerry Manuel decided he’d like Daniel Murphy to hit second, which is fair enough. I was thinking Castillo, but Castillo’s attitude is such now that a move in the batting order shouldn’t bother him. Given that, here’s how I see the batting order:
SS Jose Reyes
LF Daniel Murphy
CF Carlos Beltran
1B Carlos Delgado
3B David Wright
RF Ryan Church
C Brien Schneider
2B Luis Castillo
Pitcher’s slot.
Now, I wouldn’t be adverse to hitting Castillo ninth and the pitcher eighth to bunch the speed of Castillo and Reyes together. That could make Murphy a 90 RBI guy. It’s true, how many times does Reyes actually lead off an inning? Bunching the speed together could work.
That’s my two cents. What’s yours. You like this batting order as is, or would you tweak it? And, how so?
This post was written by John Delcos
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Hi John –
Glad you are back and that your Dad is doing well.
In reading the Times this morning I came across this article.
For Mets Fans, a Menu Beyond Peanuts and Cracker Jack – NYTimes.com
Apparently the Wilpons believe the public will be coming to CitiField for the food.
Funny, I thought fans wanted to see baseball.
Is my going to Blue Smoke going to interfere with your watching of the game? Didn’t think so.
Also, Reyes led off more innings than any other player per the Bill James Goldmine last year.
“…he led off 317 innings last season, according to James, the most of any hitter in baseball.”
via Metsblog (http://www.metsblog.com/2009/03/24/stats-wright-reyes-and-castillo/)
JD: welcome back and glad he’s a little better.
I like the order . has delgado deserved the #4 position so far? I have been out of town so I am unable to see him actually bat.
Persobnally i rather see Wright bat 4th.
But thats just me.
This order takes the strongest points of several players and screws them. David Wright is a true # 3. A guy who can hit over .300 and has decent power. Take him out of 3 and put him where pitchers will be willing to work around him in the 5 hole and you diminish his impact.
Schneider in the 7 hole. Wow a true # 8, a useless bat with no other spot but the 8 hole and he’s not there. And Castillo. Speed wasted completely in the 8 hole. Put him 9 or 1 or 2.
Wright is a number 3 and beltran the number 4. yet i think you can swap around a wee bit.
the 4 spot has me concerned all the time.
John, I’m glad your dad is doing better.
I apologize for not frequenting and commenting as much as I used to, but now that baseball is almost here I’ll be around more often.
I scheduled a blog for later tonight, and I’m so happy that you had Wright batting fifth that I am going to have to mention your lineup as some sort of validation.
I think that is the perfect lineup, and I hate the argument about weakening the lower part of the order with Murphy batting second and Castillo eight.
The only common sense approach is to make sure your best hitters get the most at bats. Until Castillo can prove he is back to his former self, Murphy is the better batter and deserves the lions share of at-bats.
I keep telling myself it’s only spring training but this starting staff is not looking good at all. With Ollie being Ollie, Maine still not having an outpitch and coming back slowly from surgery, plus Pelfrey’s shaky outing yesterday, i’m really worried. Not to mention Livan just isn’t that good. It’s still spring training…it’s still spring training…it’s still spring training…it’s still spring training…etc..etc…etc
(6) If the perfect order has the best players at the top then you are telling me Wright ain’t very good to whoich i say baloney. Why will teams pitch to right with Church and then SCHNEIDER behind him? Yeah right, a lot of fear with a guy who is 30 or so who never put together a whole season and a guy who hits like its a disease behind him.
Harry (8): Would you rather flip Wright with Delgado?-JD
Nope, I want Wright 3 regardless of where you plop in the rest. Wright is the best pure hitter and should be batting 3rd. Plus with Reyes/Castillo/Wright you can put so much pressure on the pitcher with 3 straight base stealers. With Murphy/Church/Tatis (2 of the 3)hitting behind Beltran there is better chance of Beltran being pitched to than there would be with Church then Schneider/Castillo.
OR I could take this:
Reyes
Beltran
Wright
Delgado
Church/Tatis
Murphy/Tatis
Schneider
Pitcher
Castillo.
Then you have 4 speedsters in a row after the first time around. Plus with the way starters get pulled after the 2nd time around you have a PH in the 8th spot, for Castillo to bunt over in a close game for 3 good hitters in a row.
I have Tatis with Church and Murphy because if he hits like last year he will get plenty of ABs.
John and Harry -
Did you watch any of the WBC? I did and David was an eager participant and played quite well – he was all over the place.
I agree with you, Harry (8) of course he should be batting third. In fact I expect him to have a real break-out season.
I think I would swap Schneider for Castillo in the lineup.
The other lineup proposed above is too lefty.
I ran across a mention of Torrealba. It reminds me that we dumped him after courting him. Do you know what happened? I was always curious why we walked away from him.
I see that Royce Ring has been kicked to the curb.
Can we start a line with Lloyd’s of London on the Good Ollie/Bad Ollie betting pool for this year?
I hope my worst fears for this guy are just that. Here’s hoping the $12 million buys us 10 wins this year.
The pool would have to go hand in hand with the delgado/delgottago pool.
count me in for both.
Ollie, after pitching 3 innings perfectly will decide he is the quisatz haderach and pitch is old wild way and screw the game.
and if delgado is depressed or actually injured, he will keep quiet and we will have delgottago on our hands for at least half the season.
Jedi Master Minaya, starting to ermond me of teh steingrabbers. let manuel do his thing. I want to see poor play treated professional by benching or moving the person down the lineup. He started doing that with positive effect the minaya jumped in and tied his hands. imho.
as Original says.. its only spring training…..
(11) Annie: Yeah he played with heart and hustle, and unfortunately so did that Jimmy Rollins. Rollins should have been the full time SS. Jeter really is showing wear and tear especially on the field. Beltran looked real good and so did Delgado and K-Rod. Putz was so-so and OP was bad.
Harry (17) –
Don’t forget the age difference between David and Derek – Jimmy’s in between them. I think Derek is just caught up in the Yankee business part of things these days – Steinbrenner being too ill and unavailable to run the place properly leaving it all up to the kids who really messed up the whole ARod situation. Also, the economy which is making a mess of the plans for both Citi Field and the new Yankee Stadium.
Say what you will about Derek, he has had an extraordinary career, in New York, both on and off the field, and his charitable foundation “Turn Two” thrives on his family’s participation.
David is on the same path looking to follow in Jeter’s footsteps on and off the field. He couldn’t have a better role model. I don’t understand why the Mets have shied away from naming him the Captain.
(18) I’m sure you are right! He looked old and slow in the WBC. And he seemed blah in the few interviews I saw with him.
i think this could another example of jerry saying one thing and doing another (ex reyes batting 3rd?) i think he may stick with what was again his lineup today vs. the cardinals
reyes
castillo
wright
delgado
beltran
murphy
church
schneider
pitcher
thats what i think we will see on opening day
wright didnt play today but castillo was up in the 2 hole and murphy was in the middle of the lineup
Annie, what does Jeter have to do with the mets?
You know I am the type of fan that an care less about another team until they play mine. why fans have to worry about another player on another team boggles my mind. unless of course that person is really a fan for the other team.
just my 3 cents
Steve (22)
Jeter is David Wright’s role model – and a good one, too.