re: Mainieri: Stevenson in CF is "fairly permanent"

quote:

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Katz at five, a primer:

Bregman is a phenom and your most balanced hitter. He bats third. He is being protected by the world's greatest hitter. That's Rhymes. Rhymes also produced a ton of runs, and situationally hits better than anyone in the lineup. If you need a ground ball to the right side or a sac fly, he will give it to you. Given his run production and his ability to hit, he is placed in the prime run producing part of the order. He is protected by the brick layer. Katz is more valuable for the protection he provides Raph then the other way around. He doesn't fit higher than third because he lacks speed. He isn't the top run producer so that takes him out of fourth. So the question is do you switch him with Bregman. You would let the freshmen protect the conference's leading hitter last year. You would also be removing the protection from your stud freshmen. It doesn't make sense. If his run production is because of his power made him a bigger run producer than Raph, you'd be right. As it stands, you want Raph to bat more than Katz. Finally, Katz had almost as many RBI's as Rhymes last year. Part of that is because he hits behind the dude that got on base almost 49% of the time last year. It is mandatory that he bat after Rhymes based on his skill set and Rhymes' ability to get on base.

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I certainly do not think having Katz bat behind Rhymes is bad. We have a luxury to have both, but to speak in absolutes like you did in this paragraph isn't right. There is no way to know which one is better, but at least you made valid points on why you think Katz should bat 5th.

Im 100% behind coach in his decisions, but I just find it interesting that he bats his best power hitter 5th.

And it's not like Katz is a homerun or strikeout guy... He has a better average than Rhymes.