February 14, 201016 yr No matter how anyone puts it our top 5 hitter HAVE TO BE, Coghlan Maybin Hanley Cantu Uggla Those 5 in those spots are a must. After that you can pretty much but the 6 to 8 guys around at anyspot Against lefties you can move Paulino up to 6, pending if he continues the mashing he did last season, Ross 7th and whoever you have at 1st, or possible at 3rd batting 8th, Gaby/LoMo or Boni. Against Right handed pitchers you could bat Baker 6th if he's hitting well, Ross 7th again and then either LoMo if he's up here or Boni if he's playing 3rd while Cantu's at 1st. There's so many options with this team which is a great thing to have but if they can all finally get it down on the field then there is a great chance that this team could be playing October baseball. Hitting really isn't a worry for me though, it's weather or not or rotation will shape in and keep us in game going into later innings or just flat out collapse to a point where we need 4 or 5 picthers to finish a game when out 3 4 5 guys are on the mound.
February 14, 201016 yr I would prefer: LF Coghlan CF Maybin SS Ramirez 3B Cantu C Baker 2B Uggla 1B Sanchez/Morrison RF Ross P Pitcher No way would I want to waste Ross batting 8th. Normally, I would agree, but Ross at 8th in this situation isn't such a bad thing. First off, it gives Sanchez/Morrison a power bat behind them, so they are going to see better pitches. On the flip side of that, Ross himself has proven himself to be a very versitile batter, and has hit well even in the #8 spot. So not only do you have a good bat at #8, you take the pressure off the rookies sitting in the #7 spot. (to be honest, though, I personally would rather have Ross batting further up in the lineup, not further back...
February 15, 201016 yr Ross wouldn't see any good pitches batting 8th. He is a run producer and he shouldn't bat any lower than 6th in the lineup.
February 15, 201016 yr He's a low obp all or nothing kind of slugger, though. 8th isn't a bad place for him.
February 15, 201016 yr Ross (.790 OPS) and a RBI every 6.21 at bats should not be batting 8th in the lineup. Baker had a .759 OPS and he knocked in a run every 7.46 ABs last season.
February 15, 201016 yr bakers job should be to turn the lineup over. i sure as hell dont want a rook in the 8 spot getting protection from the pitcher.
February 15, 201016 yr Author Ross (.790 OPS) and a RBI every 6.21 at bats should not be batting 8th in the lineup. Baker had a .759 OPS and he knocked in a run every 7.46 ABs last season. RBI per AB is hilarious. Back to reality, vs RHP Baker .281/.354/.420 (.774), career .295/.374/.441 (.815) Ross .266/.313/.424 (.736), career .253/.309/.429 (.738) Really no question Baker should hit higher than Cody vs RHP, which is about 120+ games. Cody is going to mash regardless of where he is. That's just who he is. He's going to have the same output if you put him 5th or 7th. This should be the core lineup. Maybin/Coghlan and Baker/Uggla are interchangeable, I just prefer this configuration to get the lefties as close as possible to one another. I think it would be foolish to stack 4 right handers in a row versus right handers. I like Cantu 4th because of his superior contact rates to Uggla, despite the fact Uggla is clearly a better overall hitter. A lot of speed on the base paths in front of him to score on balls in play. Uggla isn't that much better to flip those two around. R Maybin L Coghlan R Hanley R Cantu L Baker R Uggla R Ross R G. Sanchez / L "hopefully some left handed Veteran Bat to help him out, looking at you Hank Blalock or Russ Branyan" / S Bonifacio at 3B then vs LHP R Maybin L Coghlan R Hanley R Cantu R Ross R Uggla R Paulino R G. Sanchez This is a very stable lineup. The only guy that moves anywhere is Cody, and that's just vs LHP because he simply rockets that. I also don't buy into Gaby Sanchez being completely over matched where he needs protection. This guy drew more walks than whiffs his entire MLB career and has hit everywhere. Maybe he's not a longterm starter and only has some upside, but he's got an idea of how to hit and would be fine grinding out PA.
February 15, 201016 yr When Baker's in the lineup, I want him batting 2nd until Maybin can prove he is legit. Baker has always been consistant in the 2 spot.
February 15, 201016 yr Author When Baker's in the lineup, I want him batting 2nd until Maybin can prove he is legit. Baker has always been consistant in the 2 spot. Don't want two lefties in a row when we only have two
February 15, 201016 yr So who would you bat 8th? Gaby or Lomo? And have them bat in front of the pitcher?
February 15, 201016 yr So who would you bat 8th? Gaby or Lomo? And have them bat in front of the pitcher? That's generally where the 8th hitter goes.
February 15, 201016 yr So who would you bat 8th? Gaby or Lomo? And have them bat in front of the pitcher? That's generally where the 8th hitter goes. You're kidding. Seriousely, It would be stupid to have Logan or Gaby to bat infront of the pitcher. We saw what happened to Maybin. Also, we know Ross can hit infront of the pitcher without it effecting his game.
February 15, 201016 yr The whole thing with batting 8 is greatly overblown. I remember last year people saying Maybin would see more fast balls hitting first instead of Bonifacio so he'd do better hitting first, but both saw fast balls at the same rate so the argument was completely null and void. If you can't hit 8th, you can't hit.
February 15, 201016 yr The most important thing is to make sure that the high OBP guys don't clog the bases.
February 15, 201016 yr The most important thing is to make sure that the high OBP guys don't clog the bases. Dusty? Is that you? Frankly I think a patient hitter with a good contact rate should hit 8th. I might go with: Coghlan Maybin Ramirez Ugga Ross Cantu 1B Baker Honestly, 4-6 could be randomly placed amongst those 3 players with only marginal effects.
February 15, 201016 yr It will be interesting to see how Maybin does batting second. I know that a lot of people didn't like Uggla batting second because he whiffed so much but Maybin K's just as much as he does. The Marlins really don't have a hitter that fits in the #2 hole. Chris Coghlan is the prototypical # 2 hitter. Lefty, high contact, high OBP, and has plus speed. Problem is, the Marlins don't have a hitter that fits that # 1 hole. Hopefully Maybin establishes himself so we can switch those first two. You are right but the Marlins seem intent on leading him off. Which is the smart thing to do right now, but if Maybin goes McCutchen on us, time to flip them. Let Maybin run wild and go 1st to 3rd with Coghlan taking a billion pitches and hitting everything to the right side. It probably doesn't effect the bottom line that much, but it would be better that way. Then you just hope 3-4-5 is Hanley, Morrison, and Stanton, and the top of your order looks terrifying. That's probably summer of 2011. According to team officials at the 3:00 meeting, we are going to see alot more of this from the entire team. Used the Angles as an example of base running techniques. Part is having an aggressive 3B coach. Watch alot of guys looking to 3B when they are coming up on 2B on singles to RF and CF. And they want the new 3B coach to be very aggressive. This also means sending alot of guys home on close plays. I think it was Admin that said (to paraphrase), "The 3B job is the hardest coaching job. You don't get the credit when someone scores, but you get blamed when they are thrown out." A statement that is not new to these boards, just pretty much ignored when a good bashing can take place.
February 15, 201016 yr To me I think that your best hitters should get the most at bats, period. Regardless of speed. With that in mind you absolutely waste Ross batting him 8th. Why does Maybin all of a sudden get a ton of extra at bats when the season starts? What has he done in his major league career to warrant batting 2nd in the batting order. It doesn't matter how fast you are if you can't get on base.
February 15, 201016 yr To me I think that your best hitters should get the most at bats, period. Regardless of speed. With that in mind you absolutely waste Ross batting him 8th. Why does Maybin all of a sudden get a ton of extra at bats when the season starts? What has he done in his major league career to warrant batting 2nd in the batting order. It doesn't matter how fast you are if you can't get on base. Cameron Maybin's major league OBP is higher than Cody's. So he's done that. He also has a lot more upside in terms of getting on base.
February 15, 201016 yr To me I think that your best hitters should get the most at bats, period. Regardless of speed. With that in mind you absolutely waste Ross batting him 8th. Why does Maybin all of a sudden get a ton of extra at bats when the season starts? What has he done in his major league career to warrant batting 2nd in the batting order. It doesn't matter how fast you are if you can't get on base. Cameron Maybin's major league OBP is higher than Cody's. So he's done that. He also has a lot more upside in terms of getting on base. You are right. Maybin has a .325 career OBP while Ross has a .323. Ross was higher last year .321-.318. The big difference comes in OPS where Ross is .807 in his career while Maybin is .726.
February 15, 201016 yr Maybin will probably outproduce Ross in OBP next year. When constructing a lineup, you generally want higher OBP guys higher in the order, because they will make less outs.
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