Ha. Love it. He's cognizant of pissing off the baseball gods/jinxing himself but has no concerns about getting a baseball in the ear the next time he comes to the plate because he pulled a bat flip after a grand slam when his team was already up 8 runs.
Are ya'll saying the baseball gods are not real? :knocking on wood like kubiak in a press conference:
Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci released his MLB mid-season report and it had a lot of love for the 'Stros. Verducci's MVP Rankings: 1. Aaron Judge 2. Carlos Correa 3. George Springer 4. Jose Altuve He also has Lance as #2 in the AL Cy Young. What a job this Astros FO has done.
so question, why is Reddick batting third now? Not complaining about the results from last night but just curious.
What I read was to give more protection for Springer. Apparently Reddick has been asking to be 3rd in these games.
Something about getting Altuve the chance to drive in the bottom of the order since the P is more or less an automatic out in the NL park.
According to Hinch, since the pitcher is batting and may be asked to move a runner via a bunt, Springer will see better pitches with the right handed hitting Altuve behind him than the left handed Reddick (Braves are throwing two left handers). Hinch was envisioning a scenario where Bregman gets bunted to second, Springer is facing a left hander who may either walk him or throw him nothing to hit as they may want to face Reddick instead. With Altuve hitting behind him, the left hander would be picking their poison if they opt to pitch to Altuve.
Right or wrong, I appreciate this level of thought + the willingness to make a change when he thinks it makes sense. I had assumed it was related to the 9 spot being a pitcher, which creates a massively different set of potential outcomes from the lineup. But adding lefties on top of that makes it even more unique than it already was for these 2 games.
I'm not a real lineup truther but Altuve should really be in the 2 spot long term. It's the most optimal position in the lineup statistically. Hard to argue though given how good the offense has been.
It appears Root Sports is doing an offense only replay of yesterday's game. Do they usually do this or is it because it was such a long game?
Prior to this season, Altuve had 900+ at bats as leadoff and 470+ at number 2 and 430+ at number 3 2014-2016. His best numbers are hitting 3rd (although they are all very good). Why do you say batting 2nd is the optimum position in the lineup for him?
You know, I saw that and thought, "Yeah, you really don't do that in that situation." Wouldn't be surprised if he sees a close one today. Or not.
