What if we flip flop Rooker and Mangum?

[Leeshouldveflanked]

I doubt Rooker gets many more good pitches for a while.... What if we flip him and Mangum and have Rooker bat lead-off...

[louisvilledawg]

I doubt Rooker gets many more good pitches for a while.... What if we flip him and Mangum and have Rooker bat lead-off...


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[smootness]

You want Mangum hitting in front of him for two reasons:

1) He gets fewer ABs with runners on/in scoring position hitting 1st
2) You want them to pitch to him, so it helps having a guy getting on in front of him almost half the time.

[whosyourdawgy]

Simple answer. Hell no! Why would you want to change what is clearly working? It was somewhat genius to put him at 2 w Gridley and Brown behind him. But maybe more importantly having Stovall at 9 is brilliant because that puts him in front of Mangum for more RBI opportunities. Until something changes, you don't touch the top 3 for certain or the 9 hole. 4-8 may can be tinkered with but don't screw with what is working

[Tbonewannabe]

You want Mangum hitting in front of him for two reasons:

1) He gets fewer ABs with runners on/in scoring position hitting 1st
2) You want them to pitch to him, so it helps having a guy getting on in front of him almost half the time.

Also Mangum being a threat to steal makes them pitch Rooker even more carefully. They can't risk a hard breaking pitch in the dirt that might put Mangum in scoring position with Rooker at the plate.

[yjnkdawg]

I doubt Rooker gets many more good pitches for a while.... What if we flip him and Mangum and have Rooker bat lead-off...


Let's just let Cannizaro decide how he wants his batting lineup. He has decided on Mangum as the leadoff hitter and Rooker batting second. If ain't broke, why try to fix it.

[smootness]

The bottom line is, getting good pitches to hit often has more to do with who is on in front of you than who is coming up behind you. No one is thinking, 'Man, we have to give Rooker pitches to hit because Gridley is coming up after him'...just like nobody would be saying, 'Man, we have to give Rooker pitches to hit because Mangum is coming up after him.'

You pitch to Rooker if it makes sense based on situation, score, runners on, etc. and you don't if it doesn't. If Mangum is standing on 1st, it pretty much never makes sense to pitch around Rooker. We may start seeing him get the Barry Bonds treatment where teams pitch around him no matter what, but if that happens, it will happen no matter who is hitting behind him.

[Johnson85]

I doubt Rooker gets many more good pitches for a while.... What if we flip him and Mangum and have Rooker bat lead-off...

I'm not a baseball guy, but it seems like your solution would make Rooker get fewer pitches to hit. If Mangum is on in front of him, they will not want to give him RBI opportunities, but they also will not want to put two on base with no outs and a good runner at second.

On the flip side, if Rooker is first, they can walk him, and then pitch to Mangum, who is less likely to hit for power and they will also have the benefit of having the weaker baserunner in front.