Insight, observations (and whatever else comes to mind) on the trails of the team that ended the quarter century-long parade drought in the City of Brotherly Love - the Philadelphia Phillies.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Hot off the press: Jimmy Rollins, hitting .195 with five walks all season, is out of the leadoff spot.
He's batting fifth.
1. Victorino
2. Utley
3. Werth
4. Howard
5. Rollins
6. Ibanez
7. Feliz
8. Ruiz
9. Park
posted by Ryan at
3:37 PM
Born in Philadelphia and raised in South Jersey, Ryan joined the Delaware County Daily Times staff in January of 2008. He previously worked at the Camden (N.J.) Courier-Post where he was the 76ers beat writer and backed up the Phillies beat. Ryan, a Clemson University grad who received his masters at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, has been following baseball one way or another for nearly three decades.
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2 Comments:
Ryan, yesterday, due to Rollins' "slump", you proposed moving Werth into the leadoff spot. You reasoned that he had the 2nd highest OBP on the Phillies and the speed to bat leadoff. I think, however you missed the obvious.
Chase Utley also has speed and the highest OBP On the Phillies. Utley also has a leadoff hitter's mentality, do anything to get on base, as suggested by the fact that he has been hit by pitches 52 times the past two seasons. The reason this is so obvious is that the Phillies have a "natural" #3 in Ibanez currently leading the Phillies in hitting, but batting 6th.
Victorino is pretty much a Rollins clone so I wasn't thrilled with Manuel's lineup last night, but no one's ever accused him of thinking outside the box. Actually moving a .190 hitter to protect Howard shows no thinking at all.
A permanent move Of Utley to leadoff would get your best hitter the most ABs and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Also moving Ibanez into the 3-hole would certainly give him more ABs and more fastballs to hit.
1. Utley
2. Victorino
3. Ibanez
4. Howard
5. Werth
6. Rollins
7. Feliz
8. catcher
9. pitcher
I did not propose for Werth to hit leadoff --- I said it might be a temporary solution Manuel turns to (as he has in the past)... I actually wrote that Werth was more vital to the middle of the lineup (I'll post the words from my story below).
I also did point out Utley's OBP.
But Utley can't hit leaoff. You best hitter has to be in the middle of the order, in a run-producing position. He's an RBI guy, and would have far fewer RBI opportunities in the No.1 spot.
Manuel would never move Utley to leadoff. I don't even think he likes hitting him second; he prefers Utley in the 3-5 spots.
As for using a .190 hitter to protect Rollins - I agree. I would have hit flip-flopped Howard and Ibanez.
Here's the aforementioned excerpts from the Werth story:
"Manuel turned to Werth early last year when both Rollins and Shane Victorino were on the disabled list at the same time. But there is a significant difference between 2008 and 2009. Pat Burrell resides in Tampa, not the middle of the Phillies’ order, and the right-handed-hitting Werth is more crucial to balancing out the lefty-heavy middle of the order than he is as a long-term solution to what ails the top of the order..."
"If Manuel feels he has to fix the batting order, moving Werth to the leadoff spot could very well be an option. But knowing his value to the middle of the order, where the only other option would be sliding switch-hitting Shane Victorino into the fifth spot, Werth is more suited in the long term between Howard and Ibanez."
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