December 7, 201312 yr I believe Furcal will bat 1st If you look at his career....Furcal has led off about 90% of the games he has started. I was thinking this too, not so much for Furcal but for how it should put Yelich in a better spot in the order. I think at this point Yelich should be leading off, give him as many AB's as humanly possible. Furcal hit leadoff most of his career as an elite player, which he no longer is. However he doesn't K much, he's a switch hitter, and an excellent bunter with good speed. All these things point to a productive #2 hitter. You are leaving out the main ingredient--he doesn't get on base much anymore. He put up a .314 OBP in his last two seasons of play. His speed is also a fraction of what it used to be. At this point he's more of a true bottom of the order hitter, not a productive number 2 hitter. He's the best thing we have. Still have LoMo for now. However the lefty lefty thing a top of the order isn't always the best option.
December 7, 201312 yr Still have LoMo for now. However the lefty lefty thing a top of the order isn't always the best option. Furcal being a switch-hitter nullifies that, methinks. I'm never a fan of two straight lefties, myself, unless they're the best two hitters on the team and batting 3/4. Even then, eh. I guess the lineup for now could be, assuming Morrison IS dealt: LF Yelich 2B Furcal RF Stanton CF Ozuna C Saltalamacchia 1B Jones/Canha/Lucas/Whatever 3B Dietrich/Lucas/Whatever SS Hech Pitcher 1B and 3B platoons, I suppose! On the flip side, if we decide to let Ozuna/Marisnick get more MiLB time, platoon Jones in left, and keep LoMo, then ... CF Yelich 2B Furcal RF Stanton 1B Morrison C Salty/LF Ruggiano LF Jones/C Salty 3B Dietrich/Lucas SS Hech Pitcher Right side of the slash = vs lefties ... even though Dietrich did hit lefties somewhat OK.
December 7, 201312 yr Author Still have LoMo for now. However the lefty lefty thing a top of the order isn't always the best option. Furcal is a switch hitter, so that's actually a positive, not a negative. The only reason you don't want to bat lefties next to each other is for lefty/lefty match up purposes, and since Furcal can just move into the other batters box in that event, no big deal.
December 7, 201312 yr I think Furcal is going to be a solid #2 hitter for the Marlins. .275 with 30 stolen bases if he can stay healthy.
December 7, 201312 yr I believe Furcal will bat 1st If you look at his career....Furcal has led off about 90% of the games he has started. I was thinking this too, not so much for Furcal but for how it should put Yelich in a better spot in the order. I think at this point Yelich should be leading off, give him as many AB's as humanly possible. Furcal hit leadoff most of his career as an elite player, which he no longer is. However he doesn't K much, he's a switch hitter, and an excellent bunter with good speed. All these things point to a productive #2 hitter. You are leaving out the main ingredient--he doesn't get on base much anymore. He put up a .314 OBP in his last two seasons of play. His speed is also a fraction of what it used to be. At this point he's more of a true bottom of the order hitter, not a productive number 2 hitter. He's the best thing we have. First, I don't think that's true (Yelich is better), and second, being the "best thing we have" doesn't mean that Furcal is a productive lead-off hitter.
December 7, 201312 yr I believe Furcal will bat 1st If you look at his career....Furcal has led off about 90% of the games he has started. I was thinking this too, not so much for Furcal but for how it should put Yelich in a better spot in the order. I think at this point Yelich should be leading off, give him as many AB's as humanly possible. Furcal hit leadoff most of his career as an elite player, which he no longer is. However he doesn't K much, he's a switch hitter, and an excellent bunter with good speed. All these things point to a productive #2 hitter. You are leaving out the main ingredient--he doesn't get on base much anymore. He put up a .314 OBP in his last two seasons of play. His speed is also a fraction of what it used to be. At this point he's more of a true bottom of the order hitter, not a productive number 2 hitter. He's the best thing we have. First, I don't think that's true (Yelich is better), and second, being the "best thing we have" doesn't mean that Furcal is a productive lead-off hitter.I want to say he meant as a number two hitter, not lead-off. Not that it makes too much a difference, cause in a (slightly) more ideal situation, yeah, he's in the bottom part of this order.
December 7, 201312 yr Number 1 or number 2--it makes no difference. Someone with his current on base ability would not be productive in either of those lineup spots.
December 7, 201312 yr Author Number 1 or number 2--it makes no difference. Someone with his current on base ability would not be productive in either of those lineup spots. I did mean number two, of course Yelich should be leading off. And let me ask you, who else in the lineup is going to get on base significantly more than Furcal? Nobody except Stanton will have an OBP over .350, just about every batter on the team will be around .300-.330 including Furcal. If that IS the case, Furcal is by far the best suited player to bat second. Now if, say, Ozuna, all of a sudden steps up and decides to get on base at a real nice clip, then you can make a change... But nobody will get on significantly more than Furcal IMO. He's not the best #2 hitter in the league, but he will be the best on this team.
December 7, 201312 yr First of all, my point here is that Furcal doesn't have the on base ability to be a "productive" number 2 hitter. That has nothing to do with whether or not there are players in the lineup better than him. Secondly, we don't even know who is going to be in the lineup yet. 1st and 3rd base appear to be open right now. Morrison (if he were to stay), would easily get on base more than Furcal would. I also don't know who they plan on putting in CF. If Ozuna can't put up a .300-.315 OBP, he probably shouldn't be in the big leagues. Someone else should be in that spot.
December 7, 201312 yr Number 1 or number 2--it makes no difference. Someone with his current on base ability would not be productive in either of those lineup spots. Which is kinda what I said. "Not that it makes too much a difference."
December 7, 201312 yr Agree with Penguino, just because he was a great top of the order hitter in the past doesn't mean he should be give the spot going into the season. Obviously the job at 2nd is his to lose at the moment but hopefully he shows some pop and a spring in his step. If he shows promise then by all means put him at the 1 or 2 spot but if not he should be at the bottom of the order giving way to higher OBP guys like Yelich and Morrison.
December 7, 201312 yr This maybe a crazy idea but lets say Furcal doesn't show that he has much left at the plate and isn't doing a good job getting on base, would it be crazy to put someone like Salty in the 2 hole? Assuming Morrison is gone of course he's the only other player with a decent OBP on the roster and could give opportunity to create runs behind Yelich and ahead of Stanton.
December 7, 201312 yr I think it would depend on how well Salty is doing. He had a decent .338 OBP last season but a horrific .288 in his prior two seasons.
December 7, 201312 yr Author This maybe a crazy idea but lets say Furcal doesn't show that he has much left at the plate and isn't doing a good job getting on base, would it be crazy to put someone like Salty in the 2 hole? Assuming Morrison is gone of course he's the only other player with a decent OBP on the roster and could give opportunity to create runs behind Yelich and ahead of Stanton. I actually had Salty as the #2 hitter before we signed Furcal. Penguino, so if we still have Morrison, you'd rather bat him behind Yelich? So you'd rather bat two lefties in a row... and take two of the few run producing bats we have and bat them 1 & 2? I'm fine with batting Yelich leadoff instead of third to maximize his at bats, but I think batting him first and LoMo second would be dumb. You still need people in the middle of the lineup to drive in runs.
December 7, 201312 yr I've said this probably a million times already, but having two lefties in a row is more desirable than having someone with bad on base ability hitting in the second spot. Morrison isn't the type of guy you would need in the middle of the order to "drive in runs."
December 7, 201312 yr This maybe a crazy idea but lets say Furcal doesn't show that he has much left at the plate and isn't doing a good job getting on base, would it be crazy to put someone like Salty in the 2 hole? Assuming Morrison is gone of course he's the only other player with a decent OBP on the roster and could give opportunity to create runs behind Yelich and ahead of Stanton. I actually had Salty as the #2 hitter before we signed Furcal. Penguino, so if we still have Morrison, you'd rather bat him behind Yelich? So you'd rather bat two lefties in a row... and take two of the few run producing bats we have and bat them 1 & 2? I'm fine with batting Yelich leadoff instead of third to maximize his at bats, but I think batting him first and LoMo second would be dumb. You still need people in the middle of the lineup to drive in runs. You could always go with the L/S/R/L in Yelich, Salty, Stanton, Morrison
December 7, 201312 yr Also, Morrison probably shouldn't be playing against lefties much anyway. A RHB platooning at first could probably hit second as well.
December 7, 201312 yr Author I've said this probably a million times already, but having two lefties in a row is more desirable than having someone with bad on base ability hitting in the second spot. Morrison isn't the type of guy you would need in the middle of the order to "drive in runs." I disagree with both of these severely. Having two lefties back to back puts you at a huge disadvantage later in a game, and LoMo is EXACTLY the kind of hitter that should be in the middle of the lineup if he can produce what most of us think he can this year.
December 8, 201312 yr Having multiple opportunities to score runs early in the game easily offsets the at most one time that the opposing manger is likely to use a specialist, which can also be counteracted by pinch hitting. Morrison's power ability has been dwindling. I'd like to see your statistical reasoning saying otherwise. That's probably even why the Marlins want to bring in Jones.
December 8, 201312 yr Furcal and Hecchevarria should be batting 7th and 8th. And then Dietrich should be hitting 7th when he replaces Furcal.
December 8, 201312 yr What about moving Dietrich and Lomo for Middlebrooks and a prospect? That would be us getting ripped off.
December 8, 201312 yr What about moving Dietrich and Lomo for Middlebrooks and a prospect? Not worth it if he's going to be brought in as a stop gap. But then again he could be moved to play 1B
December 8, 201312 yr Lets trade Lomo in a deal to the Rays including Sean Rodriguez. 1- Furcal 2. Rodriguez 3. Yelich 4. Stanton 5. Jones 6. Saltalammachia 7. Ozuna 8. Hech Or move Rodriguez to 7th and move everyone up a spot. Thoughts??
December 8, 201312 yr Lets trade Lomo in a deal to the Rays including Sean Rodriguez. 1- Furcal 2. Rodriguez 3. Yelich 4. Stanton 5. Jones 6. Saltalammachia 7. Ozuna 8. Hech Or move Rodriguez to 7th and move everyone up a spot. Thoughts?? I'd rather they not do that
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