data.3news-bydate.train.rec.sport.baseball.104843 Maven / Gradle / Ivy
From: [email protected] (sanjeev punjabi)
Subject: Re: Why is Barry Bonds not batting 4th?
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Lines: 37
In article <[email protected]> [email protected] writes:
>In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (sanjeev punjabi) writes:
>>
>>As the heading indicates, it is impossible for me to fathom why Barry is not
>>batting 4th for the Giants behind Will Clark. Barry is such an awesome and
>>consistent hitter -- definitely the best in the National League. IMHO, to
>>have Williams, a streaky hitter (and not really a clutch hitter) batting
>>4th ahead of Bonds is simply an injustice to the Giants and fans of the
>>Giants.
>
>2 simple reasons:
>
>(1) Batting Williams ahead of Bonds will create a Left(Clark),
> Right(Williams), Left(Bonds) situation in the middle of the
> batting order. This makes it tougher for opposing manager
> to change pitchers.
>
>(2) Having Bonds batting behind Williams means that Matt will get
> more good pitches to hit. This is important since he struggles
> so much with breaking balls. Opposing pitchers don't want to
> walk Williams to get to Bonds.
Both your reasons are not good ones. Joe Morgan thinks that Bonds-Clark-
Williams should be the 3-4-5 hitters. While he believes that Clark-Bonds-
Williams is fine, he definitely is of the opinion that Bonds should hit
ahead of Williams. I am inclined to agree with him.
Your first reason is not valid because Bonds can hit both lefties and righties
very well. He hits lefties or righties better than any other Giant
Williams is still getting breaking balls although not as much as last season.
But, the bottom line is Bonds is a far more disciplined and more productive
hitter than Williams, and I prefer to take my chances with Bonds driving in
the 1, 2 or 3 hitters (who are expected to have high OBPs) than with Williams.
Williams would get more fastballs with Bonds on first and second base open
because of the threat of Bonds stealing.