Last night was painful. Gonzales was solid, I thought, for his first big league start in a while. I'd rather have that guy in our bullpen the rest of the way instead of Blaine Neal.
Seriously, Neal needs some work. He throws basically a fast ball and a changeup and misses his spots badly with both. His fast ball is flat and he needs location otherwise the ball flies out of the yard (kind of like last night).
By the time that game got to Embree, it was over.
And Millar. He's great. I love the guy. but...let's move him down to 7 or so in the lineup.
I'd like to move Renteria up to the 2 hole and hit-and-run with Damon. Renteria might not get a ton of hits, but he makes contact. Move Varitek (a switch-hitter with good power this year) in to the 5-spot behind Ortiz so that David sees more good pitches. People are pitching around Ortiz now.
Millar will start to hit, and he should remain in the lineup, just not in the 5 hole.
Tonight Halama goes maybe 5 innings. Not that he will get knocked out, he just hasn't thrown that much this year, yet. Then we are on to the wackey adventures of the Sox pen (with no long relief. Mantei, Timlin, Embree, Foulke (6,7,8,9)...
Halama is looking good. And very efficient. Less than 50 pitches through 4. If he can get through 6 that would be nice.
ReplyDeleteEspn is reporting (although I can't read it) that Damon wants a five year deal. Say goodbye to Boston, Johnny. Scott Boras is his agent, if my memory serves me correctly.
Hanley Ramirez say hello to your new neighbors Trot Nixon and Manny Ramirez.
Other ESPN stories I can't read - Clemens to Houston, more Yankee moves...
Oh wait here's one I can read - this is weird - the Unit says he does not know why he missed a starte and he could have gone. Strange.
This was a previous post of mine in April, which naturally no one posted a comment. I'd like to point out two things, my push for Millar to bat 7 and my christening of Bellhorn "K-horn"....
ReplyDeleteThis is always one of my favorite topics so I thought that I would post it so we can get some back-and-forth. Initially, this was going to be a rant about using Nixon in the 2 hole (I said, "2 hole") because he struck out twice yesterday. Ironically, I think I have made arguements in the past that Nixon ought to be batting second and I was about to argue that we should use Mueller. Alas I did the research and I found some interesting things.
1. Nixon is .294/.385/.553 in 425 ABs batting second
2. Mueller is .282/.365/.396 in 2273 ABs batting second
3. (Just in case you were wondering) Bellhorn is .257/.357/.432 in 544 ABs batting second
As far as I am concerned I am happy with Bellhorn (aka K-horn) batting 9th. So, Nixon batting second is pretty sweet. That being said, is his best place in the line up 2nd?
1. Nixon is .342/.425/.629 when batting 6th
2. Mueller is .355/.438/.597 with 375 ABs when batting 8th
So moving Nixon and replacing with Mueller isn't the best idea. Furthermore, 5,6,7 are Millar, Edgar, and Tek per yesterday. (Edgar batted 2nd in the first game, but more on that in a second). The best order I could establish based on the stats are:
1. Edgar is .306/.375/.422 with 206 ABs when batting 5th
2. Varitek is .299/.371/.508 with 311 ABs when batting 5th
3. Millar is .301/.376/.527 withh 731 ABs when batting 5th
5th would go to Millar, if not for the fact that,
1. Millar is .367/.439/.592 with 245 ABs when batting 7th!
So that leaves Varitek or Edgar at 5 and 6, which is easy because,
1. Edgar is .302/.354/.437 with 970 ABs when batting 6th
2. Varitek is .248/.340/.376 with 508 ABs when batting 6th
So clearly, Edgar is fine with 5 or 6, which leaves 5th to varitek. The only thing left to do before drawing up a summary is double-checking Edgar when batting 2nd:
1. Edgar is .286/.340/.382 with 2536 ABs when batting 2nd.
He's clearly got experience batting second and I like him just as much as Mueller batting second when Trot isn't in the line up. That being said, he's got generally better stats in the 5th and 6th positions.
So of course all of this research means nothing because I did not look at lefty vs. righty pitcher, ball parks, moon cycle, and number of beers consumed (oh wait that just affects me). That being said, I'd like to see a solid number of games this season with the following line up:
1. Damon
2. Nixon
3. Manny
4. Ortiz
5. Varitek
6. Edagr
7. Millar
8. Mueller
9. K-horn