Dodgers News: Don Mattingly Explains Factors In Setting Batting Order
After weeks of waiting to see if Jimmy Rollins would bust out of his slump, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly replaced the veteran shortstop at the top of the order with Joc Pederson. When Rollins couldn’t get going from the two-hole, Mattingly dropped him to eighth on the lineup card May 30.
Mattingly’s lineup has otherwise remained relatively unchanged. Adrian Gonzalez was moved from third to cleanup and recently back to the three-spot; alternating with Howie Kendrick each time. However, on Thursday Yasmani Grandal started and batted second for just the third time this season and Justin Turner was in the cleanup spot.
The shuffle was in response to Kendrick being unavailable due to a stiff right knee and Mattingly’s mindset of wanting to get his hottest hitters more at-bats. “I think the batting order thing really is you want to try and get the guys who are swinging the bat best within that group of guys to get the most at-bats,” Mattingly answered when asked how much a batting order truly matters.
Mattingly went on to add the conventional wisdom of the top of the order ideally consisting of players who are capable of consistently getting on base, followed by those who can drive them in. “I think it [batting order] matters to a point because you want to set guys up,” he said.
Since being moved to the top of the lineup Pederson is batting .256/.360/.628 with 14 home runs, 23 RBIs, 43 strikeouts and 19 walks in 150 plate appearances over 33 games. Albeit in a much smaller sample size (15 games, 57 plate appearances), he had a .500 on-base percentage when hitting eighth.
While some have expressed a concern over Pederson’s strikeout rate, Mattingly has downplayed it and said he’s comfortable with the rookie center fielder’s performance while adding he ideally would like to see Pederson hold an on-base percentage near .400.
Mattingly said prior to Thursday’s game he doesn’t have any intentions on moving Pederson from the leadoff spot. After five consecutive games with a home run, Pederson’s streak came to an end Thursday night, though he narrowly missed extending it with a ball that hit off the left field fence for a double in the third inning.
[divide]2015 Sports Spectacular — Chester Pitts
Not a super fan of Kendrick batting 3rd or clean up, if you look at his large sample size career, he hits for a better average the lower you put him in the line up, and has never had more than 75 RBIs ever. IMO, 7th is the best spot for him in this line up. I would also be thinking about Pederson in the clean up spot, he looks like a 40 home run guy, and if you’re not going to let him steal bases, which they so far aren’t, put that power in a position where there will be more men on base. Puig can lead off, and I kind of like Grandal second, he has the OB% to justify it.
I think the idea was to have Puig bat 3rd or 4th and Kendrick 2nd, but with Puig being out so much Donnie hasn’t been able to play with the batting order much. Need all our guys back and healthy then Donnie will put the best line-up out there
If Jimmys bat can come around enough for him to go back to leadoff, then having Joc, Adrian, and Puig bat 2-4 in any order sounds incredible.
The Angels tried batting Kendrick second, and he was terrible, that is my point. His lifetime batting averages hitting first, second and third are .238, .264, .258. His lifetime batting averages hitting sixth, seventh, and eighth are .304, .313, and .327. His OB%s follow his batting averages. Like I said, the lower you put him in the order, the better he hits. He is not an RBI guy, and not a set up guy. He’s excellent when slotted low in the line up. He’s been around long enough to produce large sample sizes for those sharp enough to see the pattern.