Mark Reynolds is the next Mike Schmidt

[DWKB]

I notice you proposed Tracy/Byrnes hitting third ahead of Reynolds at cleanup. But, in all fairness, Upton had not yet been given the opportunity to prosper with a regular spot in the heart of the batting order.

My whole reasoning about Reynolds being best suited for #5 is the pitch-around factor. As all-around hot as Upton has been batting third, it is easy to give him plenty of intentional unintentional walks and take their chances with one power hitter following him, Reynolds and his high strikeout total.

Also two righties in a row is not ideal in the 3-4 spot.

If, on the other hand, we had a left-handed hitting real power threat (not Drew obviously) between Upton and Reynolds, we would see far less pitching around. You can pitch around only so many hitters in the heart of the order without having it bite you.

It also means that Reynolds' team leading stolen base figure would be opening 1B for the 6-7-8 hitters if he hit 5th, rather than the 5-6-7-8 hitters.

Again, too many pitch-around possibilities.

I've been a red hot NL baseball fan since I was a pre-teener in 1952. In all that time, heart-of-the-batting order has always meant 3-4-5. Only the weak teams have it at #3 or #4 or #3-4.

I'm curious if you agree with any of those points, DWKB.

I do agree that Reynolds SB could be more useful at the 5th spot rather than the 4th spot for sure and if you can construct it as such an alternating handedness is ideal for a line up.

I don't understand the "pitch around" factor of suggesting him hit 5th, though. It's much more likely you'll see a weaker hitter in the 6th slot than you would the 5th slot so how would moving him down in the order prevent pitch around situations? The pitch around argument seems to break down to getting more hitters into the lineup. I think every manager and GM in MLB wants that if they could have it.

I think AJ and Josh have worked out a really nice 1-5 of:

Lopez
Drew
Upton
Reynolds
Parra

although I'd swap Upton and Drew (would help with BC867's alternating handedness desire).

 

[82CardsGrad]

Your CY "go to" does nothing to explain why the DBacks have only won 7 games this month.

"nothing"?? Really?? How many runs have the D-backs scored this month? This year??
And what would that number have been had we had an actual legit Major League centerfielder who can put up respectable on-base %'s and batting averages?

"Nothing"?? Hardly...

 

[DWKB]

"nothing"?? Really?? How many runs have the D-backs scored this month?

Well they've scored 118 Runs this month, good for 11th in MLB.

And what would that number have been had we had an actual legit Major League centerfielder who can put up respectable on-base %'s and batting averages?

Again, considering CY put up a batting line of .258/.395/.532/.927 in the month of June I would think only an idiot would think that wasn't respectable considering it placed him 6th for all CFers and 39th for all MLB hitters in OPS.

Maybe, just maybe, we should be looking elsewhere for why they've only won 7 games this month. Like maybe being 21st in ERA and first in Errors committed?