What you're saying would make sense a month or two from now... but its still pretty early in the season to be looking at adjusting the lineup according to first month batting average samples. The only hitter really "hurting" this lineup right now is Carter, and he just had a decent enough series to show possible signs of getting out of it (and we know he's not going to be a sub .100 hitter forever... which means he's going to have a serious hot streak to get back to his career average).
Because batting average is no longer looked at as the best statistic to best measure a player's offensive worth.
Dee Gordon is hitting 375 this year but his OPS is 857. You are saying you would prefer him in your lineup over say Paul Goldschmidt who is only hitting 290 but has a 1000+ OPS???
Gattis? Personally, I'd like to see Hinch play Gattis in the field to see if it can shake him out of his slump.
I've seen Gattis make good contact over the last week +. I'm not too worried about him. I still see three guys hitting over 20HR's and possibly 4 with Valbuena.
No, Im saying that someone that hits near the mendoza line should not be batting #3. We're not talking about a 15 game sample size here with Springer...we're talking almost 100 games. Yes, he has all the potential to be a perfect guy in that spot, but he is far from it right now and we have at least a few bats that can handle that spot better than he has up to this point. He just isnt a consistent enough hitter at this point of his career to justify putting him in a position to come up to bat with RISP. 1 for 8 this year and 15 for 70 last year...for a combined BA of 0.205 in his career, covering a decent sample size. Meanwhile a player like Lowrie has hit almost 0.270 over the last 3 years. Not to mention, when a player strikes out often, it amplifies the situation even further.
Im not debating that part of it...im debating the fact that you want your 3rd hitter getting hits when there are runners in scoring position. A single, a double, a triple...doesnt matter...just get a hit to bring the runner in. In that respect, the higher the batting average, the more likely you get that runner home. Again, I'll go back to my initial statement...find me a lineup in the MLB that puts a career 0.220 hitter (and a 0.205 hitter with RISP)...3rd in the lineup. There is a reason why the majority of those guys are one of the top two hitters on their team. Springer is not that guy for us. Despite his huge potential, he has a long way to go. Until he shows otherwise, we're just making more of a sacrifice than we need to be making.
Basing anything on less than 100 AB's (in this case, Springer's #'s with RISP) is an exercise in futility. Does anybody happen to know what he hit in the minors with RISP? Or college? He's been basically the same hitter from a K, power and OBP standpoint at every level thus far, so no reason to think that this aspect of his game will allofasudden not translate. He's 25 and a more capable hitter than he has led on thus far in this brief season, and most likely will be a top 3 hitter on this team by season's end. Also, if you look around all of baseball, batting average is severely down... its clearly a pitchers era (or a bad hitters era, depending how you look at it).
Batting average stabilizes after 910 ABs which basically means than the MLB average is generally as good a guess at a player's true talent level for batting average until the player reaches 910 ABs. Springer has 410 ABs.
Right, and all im suggesting is to wait until he becomes a stable, consistent, and productive bat before placing him in the 3 spot. He has the potential, but why not wait until he actually reaches some of that before placing him towards the top of the lineup?
He is probably our best option for the 3 spot. Springer carried the 2nd highest OPS in 2014 of anyone on this roster (#1 was Altuve).
So by that logic, Kris Bryant should be sent to the bottom of the lineup because his data is not stable either.
