Terry Collins reminds me of a sitcom dad where the episode surrounds the dad trying to fix something around the house.
The dad normally thinks he knows everything that has to be done and doesn’t need help. Most of time he thinks he has this revolutionary idea that will make the job easier.
Of course things go wrong, the issue that needs to be fixed gets worse and help is needed, either from a son or a professional to make things right again.
The dad learns a valuable lesson about accepting help and not trying to make things more complicated than they are, we all laugh and the show ends.
Terry Collins now is thinking out loud about having his pitchers hit 8th in the order, like what Tony LaRussa did with the Cardinals, and to me that just doesn’t make sense.
In an article by Joel Sherman of the New York Post, Collins wanted to find a way for Daniel Murphy, David Wright and Curtis Granderson, the 2-3-4 hitters most likely during the season, to have more RBI chances.
“My thought is: How do we get them more RBI chances and also give David, in particular, chances to drive in runs,” he said. “It is a possibility I might try [hitting the pitcher eighth.] I don’t know that I will, but I might.”
Collins talked about the strategy with Tony La Russa, who while managing deployed it most often. The philosophy: You want your best hitter to bat in the first inning, so you install him third rather than cleanup. But then the next time around the order, you want to try to set up as many RBI chances as possible for the No. 3 hitter and try to avoid situations in which he could be pitched around.
The theory is that by having a legitimate hitter in the No. 9 spot — say Juan Lagares — it is as if the No. 3 batter becomes the cleanup man because Nos. 9-1-2 in the order function like 1-2-3.
“When you have a guy like David Wright, it is worth considering,” La Russa said by phone. “I liked it. You want to protect your best hitter as best as possible, and this is a way.”
In theory, because unless you are apart of a perfect game, you never see the due up hitters always go either 1-2-3 or 4-5-6 or 7-8-9 during a game, having the 9th batter in the order be a non-pitcher turns the 2-3-4 hitters into 3-4-5 hitters when the number nine hitter leads off.
In the American League, where you have the DH and not a pitcher hitting, you see this theory used more often. The Yankees with Brett Gardner and Derek Jeter hitting 9-1 in the order is something we have seen plenty over the last few years.
The problem that I see here is that the two main options you would be using in this situation: Ruben Tejada or Juan Lagares are not exactly the best hitters in the world and getting on base for them is not their forte.
I mean lets look at a potential lineup that Collins could trot out there on a given night with a pitcher hitting 8th.
1. Eric Young Jr./Juan Lagares
2. Daniel Murphy
3. David Wright
4. Curtis Granderson
5. Chris Young
6. Ike Davis/Lucas Duda
7. Travis d’Arnaud
8. Bartolo Colon
9. Ruben Tejada/Juan Lagares
I mean WOW, I bet David and Curtis should have plenty of RBI chances with Young Jr. (.310 OBP with the Mets in 2013) Lagares (.281 OBP in 2013) and Tejada (.259 OBP in 2013) helping set the table in front of them, right?
I mean Young is truly nothing but a bench guy with speed, Tejada is coming off an extremely down season and Lagares, who has the most upside of the group, is still learning the craft of hitting and improving his eye at the plate.
If the Mets had a legitimate leadoff hitter (something that would be even better if he was a shortstop), someone who could get on base at a .350 clip or better, then you could survive with this if you used Eric Young Jr. or Juan Lagares in the 9th spot.
(I know a guy the Mets used to have that could do just that but lets not beat a dead horse, shall we)
Even if you moved Chris Young to the leadoff spot or the 9th spot, you make the middle of the order too left handed by having Murphy-Granderson-Davis/Duda batting 2nd, 4th and 5th. Especially since none of those guys are that great against lefty pitching in the first place so that Collins can’t get away with stacking them in his lineup.
The combination of having three underwhelming options to do this kind of experiment just shows me that this idea, while not something that is going to happen guaranteed, is an idea that should never happen.
Terry Collins has been in baseball a long time and, contrary to what you might read on twitter or blogs about the Mets, knows what he is doing as a manager.
But this just seems like Terry is trying to take the issue of what the batting order will be, something that is a bit of a problem already, and could make it worse.
Terry, our loveable sitcom dad, is trying to re-invent the wheel and he needs to stop before he starts.
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