Tonight the Mets are throwing out an inferior line-up to the one they have over the first two games. This the starting 9 for the rubber match against the Marlins, according to Metsblog, here:
CF Angel Pagan
2B Luis Castillo
3B David Wright
LF Jason Bay
RF Jeff Francoeur
1B Fernando Tatis
C Rod Barajas
SS Ruben Tejada
SP Jon Niese
Ok, this is not a good line-up. Yes, the Mets lost yesterday, and yes this is a lefty, but it looks like Jerry disregarded a few details when creating this line-up.
First, he seems to have forgotten how terrible Fernando Tatis is...ehhh....actually nevermind, he's always just ignored that fact.
The second thing he forgot is that his line-ups from the first two games scored a combined 13 runs. WHY ARE WE SWITCHING THINGS UP THEN? Because it's a lefty? Come on. This line-up scored a bunch of runs off of the two best pitchers in the Marlins rotation, why would you switch that? Especially if that involves moving Barajas up in the order, and losing two powerful bats in Jacobs and Matthews and replacing one with Fernando Tatis...really?
I think this is a case of over-managing. Yes, Matthews wasn't great last night, but had Ramirez not had an absurd shift on in the 9th Matthews ground out up the middle would have been a game winning hit. Matthews has been an important part of the offense so far, and at least present another threat in the line-up to go deep. While I do like Pagan (playing instead of Matthews), I see the line-up as "scarier" with Matthews at 6 instead of Pagan at 1, if for no other reason than Francoeur as a 7 hitter makes the line-up seem deeper. Maybe if Pagan was at 6, and Castillo leading off with Tejada at 2 I would like this line-up better...except for Tatis being in it...
I don't want to see Tatis starting, ever. It's bad enough Omar and him are boys and they felt the need to overpay for under-production, but he's terrible and isn't a natural first baseman. I'd rather see Jacobs struggle against a lefty than Tatis starting on any day that ISN'T A SUNDAY. But I hope Tatis crushes the ball tonight and makes me eat my words, though I doubt it...
On a more positive note, it will be fun to see Niese throw and try to establish his role in this Mets rotation, which after last night, is in dire need of some reliability...
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Fact 1: Last year, Tatis had a higher AVG, OBP, and slugging percentage than Jacobs. And by most metrics, Jacobs is an atrocious fielder.
ReplyDeleteFact 2: Jacobs is 1 for 9 this year with 4 strikeouts. I don't think he's been a key cog to the Mets offense.
Fact 2a: For his career vs lefties, Jacobs hits 221/269/374. He basically turns into a worse hitting Rey Ordonez (246/289/310) with a little more pop.
Fact 3: GMJ has never hit more than 19 HR in a season, and has a career slugging of 408. Over the last 2 seasons, he's hit 12 home runs. Last year, Pagan hit 6 HR in 88 bats, and had a slugging pct of 487.
Personally, I think that this lineup is way better than the first 2, since Jacobs won't be getting any bats, and Tejada will be a giant upgrade over Cora on defense.
Sean, I disagree.
ReplyDeleteTatis was worst than Jacobs tonight.
And, This line up only managed one run against Nate Robertson...I am CERTAIN the first two line ups would have been better.
It's about what Jacobs is capable of that can change things... You cannot deny that the opposition fears making a mistake to Jacobs more so than Tatis.
first two line ups = line up from the first two games.
ReplyDeleteI realize they are the same.