ericmvan
Veteran
Supposed to be working on something more important
Posts: 8,915
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Post by ericmvan on Aug 15, 2016 8:54:59 GMT -5
I don't agree. At this point the kid has shown he is nothing but a hitter and the team overall wasn't hitting that well and his hitting stats overall I'm sure are better than several players ahead of him. No sense not using your better hitters at the 9 hole. Benintendi is clearly on a hot streak. No one is arguing that winning every game isn't important what we are saying is you need to let this kid produce and get comfortable where he's at. He's doing his job right now and others need to follow. Like someone else said people aren't machines there is a mental aspect to being moved around that could affect AB and/or the other guys. The important thing is we have a 22 year old top prospect who spent about a year in the minors and never made it to AAA who's still getting his feet wet in the majors. He's improved the team by having success thus far. However, what happens when a relatively unknown player comes into the big leagues and has success immediately? Typically, as each at bat passes the opposition gets more of a book on said player and once that book is big enough they learn his weaknesses and start game planning to exploit them. Then said player needs to adjust. Let's let him go thru those adjustments. And indeed, as I mentioned, pitchers are throwing him a crazy percentage of pitches in the zone. He has a beautiful swing and excellent bat-to-ball skills, but they really haven't started to pitch to him yet.
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Post by ryan24 on Aug 15, 2016 10:34:39 GMT -5
A good OBP-heavy player is more valuable in a normal lineup hitting 9th than he is hitting 6th or 7th. It's the difference of six to twelve plate appearances over the course of the rest of the season, and it makes him about 20% more likely to be cycled in an inning together with the top of the order. Throw in all of the subjective reasons for keeping there and I would argue it's the right move
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Post by telson13 on Aug 15, 2016 10:52:07 GMT -5
So Leon hits .400 for 40 games and gets moved down in the order? 9 is arguably more valuable than 7 or 8, especially given the run of excellent hitters 1-5. It also preserves the lineup balance. That's also why I don't have much of an issue with leaving Benintendi there. Eventually, I think he'll be a .300+/.400/.500 hitter, in which case it should probably be Moncada-Benintendi-Bogaerts-Betts-JBJ, although good luck moving Pedroia. Then, it's figuring out where Devers will wind up. All great "problems" to have. I'm not sure what to think of Leon, longer-term. He's certainly been very consistent, although it's unsustainable. But it's also possible he's genuinely figured something out.
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Post by sox fan in nc on Aug 15, 2016 10:57:09 GMT -5
So Leon hits .400 for 40 games and gets moved down in the order? If Leon was put together like Weiters or Lavarnway, we'd all be clamoring to lock him up for 10 years.
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ericmvan
Veteran
Supposed to be working on something more important
Posts: 8,915
|
Post by ericmvan on Aug 15, 2016 11:04:51 GMT -5
So Leon hits .400 for 40 games and gets moved down in the order? 9 is arguably more valuable than 7 or 8, especially given the run of excellent hitters 1-5. It also preserves the lineup balance. That's also why I don't have much of an issue with leaving Benintendi there. Eventually, I think he'll be a .300+/.400/.500 hitter, in which case it should probably be Moncada-Benintendi-Bogaerts-Betts-JBJ, although good luck moving Pedroia. Then, it's figuring out where Devers will wind up. All great "problems" to have. I'm not sure what to think of Leon, longer-term. He's certainly been very consistent, although it's unsustainable. But it's also possible he's genuinely figured something out. Leon last year with Pawtucket.Leon this year.Look at how much quieter he is now. Four or five front toe taps, gone. Bat wiggle reduced.
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Post by telson13 on Aug 15, 2016 13:00:00 GMT -5
9 is arguably more valuable than 7 or 8, especially given the run of excellent hitters 1-5. It also preserves the lineup balance. That's also why I don't have much of an issue with leaving Benintendi there. Eventually, I think he'll be a .300+/.400/.500 hitter, in which case it should probably be Moncada-Benintendi-Bogaerts-Betts-JBJ, although good luck moving Pedroia. Then, it's figuring out where Devers will wind up. All great "problems" to have. I'm not sure what to think of Leon, longer-term. He's certainly been very consistent, although it's unsustainable. But it's also possible he's genuinely figured something out. Leon last year with Pawtucket.Leon this year.Look at how much quieter he is now. Four or five front toe taps, gone. Bat wiggle reduced. The Twins would make him quit that leg-lift. I'm fine with easing in Benintendi slowly, though as I said, eventually I think he'll hit 2 or 3 (or 1, if he's higher OBP but average HR power). I don't think Leon is going to carry that .400+ BABIP, but from what I've read his exit velocities and launch angles are up quite a bit. Maybe being quieter at the plate really has made a significant difference.
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Post by soxjim on Aug 15, 2016 22:53:36 GMT -5
I don't agree. At this point the kid has shown he is nothing but a hitter and the team overall wasn't hitting that well and his hitting stats overall I'm sure are better than several players ahead of him. No sense not using your better hitters at the 9 hole. Benintendi is clearly on a hot streak. No one is arguing that winning every game isn't important what we are saying is you need to let this kid produce and get comfortable where he's at. He's doing his job right now and others need to follow. Like someone else said people aren't machines there is a mental aspect to being moved around that could affect AB and/or the other guys. The important thing is we have a 22 year old top prospect who spent about a year in the minors and never made it to AAA who's still getting his feet wet in the majors. He's improved the team by having success thus far. However, what happens when a relatively unknown player comes into the big leagues and has success immediately? Typically, as each at bat passes the opposition gets more of a book on said player and once that book is big enough they learn his weaknesses and start game planning to exploit them. Then said player needs to adjust. Let's let him go thru those adjustments. There is one person unwittingly arguing but it is because he is pretty incompetent. And his name is John Farrell. It seems that even after 8/7 and 8/9 that for example Farrell doesn't understand that Benitendi is a better hitter than Shaw/Hill. If Bradley were hurt, he'd make the same mistakes of not bringing Beni to 6, instead he'd use Shaw/Hill. IMO Beni is better. As far as the machine comment - sure. But no one is arguing that. However, as we''ve learned throughout our following of all sports, there are many ways to play and win. It doesn't have to be robotic and all play the same way. In other words, Farrell doesn't have to manage like a machine.
IMO the important thing is to win. I don't believe moving him for example from 9 to 6 will damage him considering he already is playing well while we're in the playoff hunt. Teams will find his weaknesses- sure. But teams have already found for example Shaw's/Hill's weaknesses. Beni is better even with less at bats. If we're not playing the Arizona's then we've seen we're not this great offensive machine. Give the better hitter more at bats.
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