Padres Let One Get Away
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(Howard) Lynch Mob has them here.
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I still can't figure out how the Padres lost last night. I'm thinking at least part of it has to do with the batting order employed by Bochy.
At least the right eight players are starting and the Sweeney, Giles, Klesko, Fick 2-5 is relatively difficult to argue with in and of itself. Sweeney is probably the best #2 hitter available and Klesko and Fick almost certainly belong somewhere between 3 and 5. Also, Giles obviously belongs in the top third of the order.
However, there are also two players drastically out of position: Jackson and Nady. Xavier Nady leads the team in slugging and Jackson's on-base percentage is higher than only Burroughs' and Greene's. Nady must bat in between 3 and 5, preferrably 4th and Jackson should bat no higher than sixth ever. If that gets fixed, I think the lineup is much more frightening. Right now, opposing teams have an opportunity not to have to face the Padres' biggest bat until the third inning and also a fairly reasonable shot at only seeing him bat three times.
The batting order should work to highlight your strengths and hide your weaknesses. I've already mentioned why I disagree with batting Nady 7th, but Bochy has actually made that worse than it even has to be by batting Sean Burroughs directly in front of him. Batting Jackson first can almost be excused because of how well he has hit recently, but splitting up your team's best hitters is just stupid. You maximize the impact of your best hitters by batting them one right after the other and Bochy has not been willing to do this. :sigh:
Xavier Nady
Interesting fact, with last night's home run, Nady has matched his home run total from 2003 in exactly half as many games played and little less than 2/5 the number of at-bats.
Through last night's game, Nady has 157 plate appearances putting him on pace for only 330 this season. That's just unacceptable...
(Howard) Lynch Mob has them here.
Title Track
I still can't figure out how the Padres lost last night. I'm thinking at least part of it has to do with the batting order employed by Bochy.
Damian Jackson
Mark Sweeney
Brian Giles
Ryan Klesko
Robert Fick
Sean Burroughs
Xavier Nady
Khalil Greene
At least the right eight players are starting and the Sweeney, Giles, Klesko, Fick 2-5 is relatively difficult to argue with in and of itself. Sweeney is probably the best #2 hitter available and Klesko and Fick almost certainly belong somewhere between 3 and 5. Also, Giles obviously belongs in the top third of the order.
However, there are also two players drastically out of position: Jackson and Nady. Xavier Nady leads the team in slugging and Jackson's on-base percentage is higher than only Burroughs' and Greene's. Nady must bat in between 3 and 5, preferrably 4th and Jackson should bat no higher than sixth ever. If that gets fixed, I think the lineup is much more frightening. Right now, opposing teams have an opportunity not to have to face the Padres' biggest bat until the third inning and also a fairly reasonable shot at only seeing him bat three times.
The batting order should work to highlight your strengths and hide your weaknesses. I've already mentioned why I disagree with batting Nady 7th, but Bochy has actually made that worse than it even has to be by batting Sean Burroughs directly in front of him. Batting Jackson first can almost be excused because of how well he has hit recently, but splitting up your team's best hitters is just stupid. You maximize the impact of your best hitters by batting them one right after the other and Bochy has not been willing to do this. :sigh:
Xavier Nady
Interesting fact, with last night's home run, Nady has matched his home run total from 2003 in exactly half as many games played and little less than 2/5 the number of at-bats.
Through last night's game, Nady has 157 plate appearances putting him on pace for only 330 this season. That's just unacceptable...
posted by Richard B. Wade at 10:36 AM
5 Comments:
Hey Lance, I'm in!
Richard ... THANKS for the ride Friday! Blog on!
btw, I've become a DJ fan ... he's hitting the ball hard ... it's not obvious that trading for Boone would be a good move ...
If we could get them to take Nevin, it'd be a great move. That being said, I'm pretty sure Seattle is one of the places Nevin won't let himself be traded.
As for the ride, it was no problem.
Nady should not bat lower than sixth and certainly not behind Burroughs. Using yesterday's guys, I'd at least make sure the bottom three were ordered Nady-Greene-Burroughs.
Agree'd ... and I think it matters ... I wonder what Bochy's reasoning could be for having X hit behind Burroughs? Righty/Lefty? Doesn't like Lance?
And I might as post a pointer here too ... I've posted the photos I took at the Pizza Feed at http://whassup98.blogspot.com/ ... let me know if there's folks in the background whose names you know ...
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