THANK YOU JERRY MANUEL
Jerry Manuel announced today that Daniel Murphy will be in the 2 hole, regardless of whether there is a left or right handed pitcher on the mound. Thank god. I know Castillo has come into camp in great shape and all that bullshit, but let’s be serious. Even if he has a great season, gets on base at a .375 clip and plays great defense up the middle, he has no business batting near the top of the order (although leadoff would not be a horrible idea). The dude has no power, period. All of his Slappy McSingles are just going to move Reyes over, which is fine and all, but the one thing I feel the Mets lacked the most last year were big innings, especially at the start of the game.
While Murphy is by no means a power hitter, he should probably drive ~15 home runs, but that’s not the point – he is a pure doubles hitter. Reyes has the reputation of being the most exciting player in baseball – there are few things more exciting than seeing the guy fly around the bases and scoring from first on a gapper to the outfield. Unfortunately for the 2008 Mets, Castillo’s gappers tended to be in the infield. While there is always something to say about ‘productive outs,’ I think there are fewer things more productive than a huge inning. I haven’t looked at the staaaaaaaats, so I might be wrong, but I feel the Mets would always have these 1 or 2 run innings when it seemed that they really should have plated a few more than that. As horrible as our bullpen was last year, I can’t see them blowing so many games if we had come into the later innings with a more comfortable lead.
On the flip side, Castillo is a somewhat ideal player to have in the 8 hole. As the Mets’ lineup is lefty heavy as-is, a switch hitter at the bottom will help break things up in that regard. Furthermore, being a patient hitter in front of a pitcher won’t hurt, as he will take a lot of crappy pitches and probably walk a lot. At the least, he will clear the pitcher spot a lot with 2 outs, and at best will be bunted over to give Reyes to knock in some RBIs, as Castillo still has decent speed and can get around the bases OK.
It’s a good start, but I don’t think we should stop there. Without going into detail, The Book explains that LaRussa is right, and the pitcher is best suited to the 8 spot, as it would gain an average of 1.9 runs for a typical NL team. While 0.012 runs per game may not seem like a lot, the more you optimize your team, the more things add up. The Hardball Times has a good article about batting the pitcher 7th/8th, but with the current Mets team, 8th would be ideal. After the first time through the lineup, it would open the Mets up to the ‘two leadoff hitters’ idea, and could really make for some interesting baseball.
No complaints though, I have full faith in That Gangster Jerry M. Lets go Mets!
