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Who Do You Bat Second?

Submitted by cubsnet on Thu, 2008-01-31 22:45.

Given the following information, who do you bat second in the lineup?

Player A Age PA BA. OBA. Slg. BB% IsoP
2005-07 Minors 23-25 560 0.339 0.406 0.521 9.1% 0.182
2005-07 MLB 23-25 929 0.296 0.365 0.455 9.4% 0.159
2008 ZiPS Projection 26 522 0.289 0.360 0.465   0.176
             
Player B Age PA BA. OBA. Slg. BB% IsoP
2005-07 Minors 25-27 728 0.304 0.366 0.386 9.9% 0.082
2005-07 MLB 25-27 770 0.276 0.341 0.379 8.7% 0.103
2008 ZiPS Projection 28 533 0.266 0.324 0.348   0.082

Player A is Matt Murton. Player B is Ryan Theriot, Lou Piniella's anointed #2 hitter. Of course, Theriot is the starting shortstop without apparent competition from the only person who can compete against him for that position, Ronny Cedeno, and Murton doesn't have a position with the signing of Kosuke Fukudome.

Still, a couple of questions follow:

Will Kukudome, now in his age-31 season, hit better than Murton this season (assuming Murton gets a sufficient number of at-bats to compare)?

Why do the Cubs love Theriot so much but not Murton (who, by the way, hustles just as much as Theriot; he's just a bit slower about it)?

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Re: Who Do You Bat Second?

Submitted by cgalik on Fri, 2008-02-01 08:35.

Great post. The answer in almost every category is Murton, definitely. Too bad he doesn't play SS. Not sure why they're so high on TheRiot as opposed to Murt, but I think their expectations from a corner outfielder are higher than a SS. Maybe Theriot can bunt better, or can steal more bases, or get 1st to 3rd more?

BTW, Isolated Power (IsoP) equals SLG minus AVG, tells you what's not a part of batting average. (I had to look it up)

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Fukudome

Submitted by cubsnet on Fri, 2008-02-01 19:59.

'boomer' at View from the Bleachers tempers any overly enthusiastic expectations of Fukudome's likely performance for the Cubs in 2008, noting that Murton is likely to hit just as well. (Though Fukudome is reputedly a better defender.)

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