Just some (long) late night baseball musings while I’m depressed about basketball...
Cannizaro and Cohen handle lineups sooooo differently. Here we are 48 hours out from opening day and we already have the entire starting lineup and rotation announced. That is a far cry from when Cohen put out 54 different lineups in 56 different games and you never had a clue who was going to play where and what the order would look like. Not saying one method is necessarily better than the other but just thought the difference is worth noting.
I love the balance of this lineup- we have four right handed bats, three left handed, and two switch hitters. We can pretty much match up with anyone in terms of handedness and not be significantly weaker against a lefty or righty. If the freshmen step up and we find some pop, the drop off offensively shouldn’t be as bad as I originally thought.
We’ve heard a lot about Hatcher and Allen, and I’m excited about those guys. But don’t sleep on Rowdy Jordan. He is a great athlete who can play multiple positions and is a switch hitter. Gene tracked swing and misses this preseason, and Jordan only had three in all the intrasquad games against some pretty damn good pitchers. He walked three times and only struck out twice. Obviously a small sample size, but good bat control + plate discipline against quality arms is an encouraging sign to me in terms of making an early impact.
Jordan Anderson has done a lot of good things and played pretty much exclusively in center field during preseason. That tells me he’s basically going to back up Mangum and get some mop up duty, defensive substitution, pinch running type of experience this year. Then he’ll go off to the cape this summer and get ready to take over as the starter in center next year. His bat is more advanced than some people thought, and everyone knows he’s a great athlete.
Pitching wise, Pilkington and Small will be good. Billingsley has earned the right to start the season in the rotation too. That being said, I’d love to see Keegan James take over on Sundays at some point once he’s 100%. The stuff is really good and indications are he and Blake Smith have come back strong, which is much needed. The arms could be healthier still and there have been some discipline issues- but overall the staff is light years ahead of where it was 11-12 months ago.
Cannizaro and Cohen handle lineups sooooo differently. Here we are 48 hours out from opening day and we already have the entire starting lineup and rotation announced. That is a far cry from when Cohen put out 54 different lineups in 56 different games and you never had a clue who was going to play where and what the order would look like. Not saying one method is necessarily better than the other but just thought the difference is worth noting.
I love the balance of this lineup- we have four right handed bats, three left handed, and two switch hitters. We can pretty much match up with anyone in terms of handedness and not be significantly weaker against a lefty or righty. If the freshmen step up and we find some pop, the drop off offensively shouldn’t be as bad as I originally thought.
We’ve heard a lot about Hatcher and Allen, and I’m excited about those guys. But don’t sleep on Rowdy Jordan. He is a great athlete who can play multiple positions and is a switch hitter. Gene tracked swing and misses this preseason, and Jordan only had three in all the intrasquad games against some pretty damn good pitchers. He walked three times and only struck out twice. Obviously a small sample size, but good bat control + plate discipline against quality arms is an encouraging sign to me in terms of making an early impact.
Jordan Anderson has done a lot of good things and played pretty much exclusively in center field during preseason. That tells me he’s basically going to back up Mangum and get some mop up duty, defensive substitution, pinch running type of experience this year. Then he’ll go off to the cape this summer and get ready to take over as the starter in center next year. His bat is more advanced than some people thought, and everyone knows he’s a great athlete.
Pitching wise, Pilkington and Small will be good. Billingsley has earned the right to start the season in the rotation too. That being said, I’d love to see Keegan James take over on Sundays at some point once he’s 100%. The stuff is really good and indications are he and Blake Smith have come back strong, which is much needed. The arms could be healthier still and there have been some discipline issues- but overall the staff is light years ahead of where it was 11-12 months ago.
