Not that I ever want to speak on your behalf but I think what you're saying is Alvarez should have someone batting behind him to protect him through the line up. If he is batting behind all of our better hitters, teams will pitch around him at some point. I think Alvarez will move up at some point but I get the reason of not putting too much pressure on him just yet. I think once Correa is back, Hinch is going to adjust this line up again.
When I originally posted it I was thinking he's hitting .250 on the season and hasn't been himself but it's a bit unfair because he's been injured. So when I said gets back into a groove, my thought was he hits 5 unless he starts hitting like he did in April this year or like he did two years ago. He hasn't been anywhere near his level of product a couple years ago and if an .850 OPS is the new norm for him then quite frankly yeah I don't think he should be hitting in the 2 spot while Alvarez hits in the 6 spot (let's be real he's going to get moved down there when Correa gets back).
LOL literally just laughed out loud, I'm sure my neighbors here in the office are wondering how making valves and pumps could be so funny
That's 1000% exactly what I was saying - I stated this in a follow up post before the back and forth on the Altuve groove. And to your 2nd point...he's already been hitting in the cleanup spot and has been responsible for what seems like half of our runs (RBI and R) since he's been up while we've been struggling. I think he's been fine with the pressure. You think when Correa gets back Hinch will move him up? I highly doubt it...100% see him moving to the 6 hole with Correa in the 5 hole. He'll have the easy out in saying "it's to split up the lefties and I like the Springer/Altuve/Bregman" top three but in reality he doesn't want to hurt Correa's ego (before anyone starts arguing with me about Correa's ego this is a personal opinion and I could be way off base here).
Alvarez is awesome but the 5 guys possibly in front of him are all fantastic and have a far far longer track record of success. It’s no insult to Yordan if he’s the 6th hole batter in this lineup.
I think he will move him up at some point but you never know. I hope like hell this team just gets healthy come October and they are firing on all cylinders. I think at this point, it's going to come down to whose bats are the hottest.
Such an awful problem this team is going to have when fully healthy. How to figure out a lineup of 5 all-stars and a potential ROY...and find time for everyone else that deserves to play.
Don't disagree with that but it's not like you can't move him back down if he starts to struggle. And I don't care about insulting anyone, I just don't want a guy with his power and walk capabilities to be have Gurriel behind him. Plus, the difference between PAs from the #2 spot and #6 spot over 162 games is ~70 PAs...I'm wanting the guy who's posted a .1100+ OPS in AAA/MLB this year getting those additional PAs, not a guy who has a .850 OPS. I know I'm going a bit far with this and at the end of the day if this lineup is healthy and everyone is producing like they are capable of then it shouldn't matter who hits where...we're going to score a bunch of runs. I'm at work and it's a slow day for me work load wise so just having fun throwing out hypothetical situations here.
Taken literally, this is pretty rare. Nearly always there are couple guys in a slump, hurt, or otherwise not at the top of their game. Now, whether lineup tinkering helps is another can or worms altogether.
In the last 15 days, Gurriel has a .960 OPS. Maybe he stays batworthy enough to make your point moot. http://www.espn.com/mlb/player/splits/_/id/36006/yuli-gurriel
I hope so...it would be really nice if we could get one more good half out of him. If Baseball Reference is correct, we only owe him $8.4M next year since we front loaded his contract. It'll make moving on from him a lot easier.
