Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
March 29, 2005
The Wright Order

The writers of Faith and Fear in Flushing were looking for a reason to be upset with the Mets lineup that has David Wright batting 8th. They found one.

"Experience-wise, too. It will be his first full season..."

Ah. Here's the outrage.

I mean, is this a baseball team or a frat initiation? Wright is straight outta Boys' Life -- it's not like he's a bad seed who needs to be put in his place. If this is about Mike Cameron's psyche, as the Daily News suggested, I don't want to hear it -- Mike Cameron is a fabulously well-paid adult, and Wright shouldn't be punished for being a team guy. And Randolph and Down's Yankee teams won because they worked counts, wore out pitchers and played solid situational baseball -- not because Jeter and Rivera were fetching Gatorade for veterans. If they aren't clear on this point, I've overestimated them.

Wright's minor league numbers suggest he'd be a better top of the order hitter than either Matsui or Reyes. I'm willing to give Reyes the benefit of the doubt because at his age anything is possible. I'm not impressed at all with Matsui as a hitter; Reyes-Wright 1-2 is much better than the two middle infielders setting the table. Randolph can base the switching of Kaz and David in the lineup based on their spring training numbers. If it doesn't work out, he can always make a change.


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Posted by David Pinto at 01:35 PM | Management | TrackBack (0)
Comments

He suggests that Wright should be moved up and Cameron put in eighth because Cameron has never shown the ability to draw walks-- but unless my copy of the Sabermetric Encyclopedia is in error, Cameron walked better than twice as often per PA as Wright last year...

Posted by: john swinney at March 29, 2005 03:10 PM

Cameron and Wright should both be higher in the order than Matsui.

Posted by: sabernar at March 29, 2005 04:30 PM

Won't this also be Reyes' first full season?

Posted by: Crank at March 30, 2005 04:56 PM
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