This news was talked about a few days ago, and now it's going to be how we officially start the season. The Captain will be leading off, while Johnny Damon moves into the 2 hole. While nostalgically it would be nice to always have The Captain bat 2nd, I like this move for 3 reasons.
1st of all, you want to get your best hitters as many at-bats as possible. What better way to do this than to have the greatest of all time batting 1st?
2nd, I like a lineup that doesn't have consecutive lefties (or righties but that's harder). With lefty Brett Gardner batting 9th, our lineup 1 through 1 probably looks like this: Righty Captain, Lefty Damon, Switch Teix, Lefty Matsui, Switch Posada, Lefty Cano, Righty Nady, Righty Ransom, Lefty Gardner, Righty Captain.
And finally, the 1 problem I've ever had with Jeter Christ is his propensity to sacrifice bunt. He is a tremendously humble Captain and that definitely plays a role in why I love him, but when Damon leads off the 1st with a single there's really no reason to be bunting him over to 2nd.
All in all, I like the move, and hey, look, a blog! Mid-terms are over so baseball preview time either today or tomorrow (or the next few days most likely).
“That’s baseball, Suzyn…”
1 week ago
1 comment:
I like how the Captain bats first and tenth. And hey, I told you this.
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