But with Slappy batting 9th I don’t think its that awful an idea. Really, the place to put him if you’re so worried about protecting him is second. You just don’t bump your best hitter to the bottom half of the lineup for the sake of protection, getting Wright more PAs and getting him on base ahead of other guys who can hit is a much higher priority. But my guess is that Jerry’s argument against putting Sheff second would be some nonsense about bunting ability. Again, a misevalution of his priorities as a manager.

Is there really such a thing as too much power?

The Book says you should bat your three best hitters 1-2-4. Sheffield is one of those, sadly, at this point. He’s also the one who walks more than he singles. I think he’s the best fit we’ve got.

That wasn’t really criticism as much as an observation. I think guys are better off pitching 2 innings and coming back on one day’s rest then they are pitching two games in a row. Therefore, I’d rather have Parnell pitch 2 innings up 2 and save KRod for 2 innings that are closer. But, obviously, that won’t happen.

How about because despite the fact that David Wright has already been on base 11 more times in May than he was all of April, he’s scored two fewer runs.

I think Jerry’s reasoning is pretty clear, its just not good reasoning. I’ve said this a number of times, you don’t move your best offensive weapon to the bottom half of the order for the sake of protection of a lesser bat. When a guy has a .560 OBP in his last 19 games, he’s the guy you want protected, and not with Jeremy Reed. He’s also the guy you want getting as many PAs in a game as possible. And its not like when Jerry put him in the cleanup spot the last couple games he started trying to crank everything out of the park. His approach seemed exactly the same. He was right on pitches in the zone, hitting line drives and talking his walks.

But EVERYTHING’S wrong with making him hit 5th.

3 and 4 are based in a land you don’t want to go. A player’s lineup slot having an impact on his production gets really far into psychology 101 and assumes more than it probably should, especially considering these guys are professionals.

Wright doesn’t get any RBI opportunities at all lately, if you’ve noticed. He’s barely had any RBI situations because the inning is usually over before it gets to him at 5.

One has a solid rational. Lets say that by hitting Wright in front of Sheffield, you’d expect him to see more fastballs. Fangraphs definitely shows that, as he is getting 61% fastballs as compared to 54% last year. However, if you bat Sheffield first, and bat Beltran second, he’d probably see, at most, two or three less fastballs a game.

Then why in God’s name would you bat him leadoff?

With those guys you listed, I’d do this:

Sheffield
Beltran
Tatis
Wright
Castro (if you’re married to the idea of the struggles mattering…I’m not there yet, I’d still bat Murphy 5th)
Murphy
Castillo
Reed
Pagan

…Until you consider that the Indians probably like him too for all those reasons and wouldn’t part with him easily.

If anything, I think we’d be after the other Indians catcher.

Its quite conceivable that the Indians would try to get the Mets, Phils, and Marlins into a bidding war, only to then send him to Boston for the kind of power arm that none the NL East teams have/can afford to spare.