What would you do as MGR ?

[linery88]

There is no predicting what will happen in baseball.
Good teams do X..? thats silly clueless broadcaster speak.
We are a slumping offense now,and have been especially at home lately..thats it.
How do we get the offense going at home ?

[JN]

Moving people up or down a spot or two in the order is not going to make a huge difference.
Just put High OBP guys toward the top, low OBP guys toward the bottom.

[linery88]

I,d rather have the most consistent offense in baseball,especially at home.Our offense has been run challenged for a while now at home.Our pitching has carried us lately with that good recent road trip,and ocassional blowout there.We had the best offense in baseball when Montoya was here,but its a misleading characterization-imo.
I hope one of these days a player speaks out about where he thinks he should bat,even if i disagree with him.

Offense under Montoyo: 4.56 runs/game.

Offence under Schneider: 4.84 runs/game.


The issue is that these characterizations just aren't borne out by reality.


We've been shut out 7 times; the Yankees have been shut out 11 times. That really annoying slap-and-run Cleveland offense that everyone liked? Shut out as many times as we have been, but they have also been held to 1 run or fewer much more often than we have (27 to 17), and same with 2 runs or fewer (38 to 33). There is no such thing as a consistent offence. Wanting baseball teams to not behave in the fashion that every baseball team does is futile.

There are some head scratching myths about this team. Like the idea that we strike out way too much. That one makes me think people just started watching baseball again after a 20 year break or something.

does that **** come from broadcasters ?

Speed is a very bad reason to hit someone with a low OBP high in the order. It's an even worse reason when they've been caught stealing 7 times in 15 attempts.

Would hitting Kirk ahead of Vladdy cost us runs? With his high OBP, he’s a logical guy to hit ahead of Vladdy. However, he’s as slow as molasses. I figure there would be a lot of Vladdy doubles where Kirk would only be able to get first to third, when most players would score. Same with singles with Kirk on second, where he wouldn’t score, when most guys would. On the other hand, as noted, he would be on base more than those other players.

Kirk should always bat behind Vladdy.It worked for a while leading up to the AllStar game.

[Schad]

Kirk was also hitting really well at that time. He's been in a bit of a slump since the ASB, and it's exceedingly doubtful that his inability to get XBHs is related to not hitting directly behind Vlad (particularly as he was hitting directly behind Vlad for most of that slump).

[linery88]

I,m not opposed to batting Kirk a couple of slots or whatever behind Vladdy if he is slumping badly.
I wonder if these guys adjust to or anticipate the adjustments pitchers have been making in how to pitch them better.

[Asianiac_24]

It’s just baffling why anyone would want Bo to hit that high in the order. There’s 5 hitters who are easily better hitters, he isn’t lighting fast compared to the 5 except Kirk, he doesn’t walk a lot, and he swings at everything. The most logical spot is for him to swing when people are on base because of his low walk rate, but doesn’t hit well enough to justify moving to 4. Springer/Vlad/Kirk/Gurriel/Teoscar should always be the top 5, with Springer locked at 1, a shuffle of Vlad/Gurriel at 2, and the remaining of Vlad/Gurriel and Kirk filling out 3/4.

The magic is IMO how you order 6-9. Id personally would always have Bo 6, Chapman 7, and whoever is the faster one at 9 between Merrifield/Espinal/Tapia/Jansen.

Needless to say, it’s a long way of saying I agree with John Schneiders lineups.

[dagger]

I,d rather have the most consistent offense in baseball,especially at home.Our offense has been run challenged for a while now at home.Our pitching has carried us lately with that good recent road trip,and ocassional blowout there.We had the best offense in baseball when Montoya was here,but its a misleading characterization-imo.
I hope one of these days a player speaks out about where he thinks he should bat,even if i disagree with him.

Offense under Montoyo: 4.56 runs/game.

Offence under Schneider: 4.84 runs/game.


The issue is that these characterizations just aren't borne out by reality.


We've been shut out 7 times; the Yankees have been shut out 11 times. That really annoying slap-and-run Cleveland offense that everyone liked? Shut out as many times as we have been, but they have also been held to 1 run or fewer much more often than we have (27 to 17), and same with 2 runs or fewer (38 to 33). There is no such thing as a consistent offence. Wanting baseball teams to not behave in the fashion that every baseball team does is futile.

I've asked this multiple times - is there a stat for how the team hits against starters vs the bullpen. I've just sat through four games with hardly any run production against starters. Three of those starters either had ERAs coming in over 6.00 or were recent callups from the minors, and no, the latter weren't top 100 prospects either. I've noticed this as a phenomenon in earlier games. We make a lot of mediocre starters look like Cy Young. This not only puts pressure on the team to beat up on relievers - it worked last night but often fails. And it stresses our own pen. So many close games means over-using our high leverage guys for stretches, unless of course, we're losing by large scores in which case they sit around idle for a week.

There are glaring examples of year over year decline. Vlad, Bo and Teoscar are well off their 2021 production levels, even if they aren't bad. Gurriel, Espinal and Kirk compensated for some of that pre-ASG, but they are easing off their June/July peaks. Tapia was over-producing in June/July, but has regressed to his mean. Luckily, Danny Jansen seems to be coming out of his long post-IL funk. It just seems to me that this lineup is too inconsistent. It can score in double digits in some games, and then barely product any offence the next three or four games. (And I am having a hard time no crapping on Guerrero for being one of the groundout kings of MLB his year. He's still a very good player, but well off the MVP-level greatness he suggested last year.)

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[Schad]

I've asked this multiple times - is there a stat for how the team hits against starters vs the bullpen. I've just sat through four games with hardly any run production against starters. Three of those starters either had ERAs coming in over 6.00 or were recent callups from the minors, and no, the latter weren't top 100 prospects either. I've noticed this as a phenomenon in earlier games. We make a lot of mediocre starters look like Cy Young. This not only puts pressure on the team to beat up on relievers - it worked last night but often fails. And it stresses our own pen. So many close games means over-using our high leverage guys for stretches, unless of course, we're losing by large scores in which case they sit around idle for a week.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/split.cgi?t=b&team=TOR&year=2022

We're hitting .269/.327/.450 against starters, .249/.321/.394 against relievers. Our performance versus opposing starters is about 16% better than league-average (and better relative to league-average than our performance versus relievers, actually).

We're also remarkably consistent based on leverage. We have a .748 OPS in low-leverage, a .747 OPS in medium-leverage, and a .764 OPS in high-leverage.

[linery88]

I've asked this multiple times - is there a stat for how the team hits against starters vs the bullpen. I've just sat through four games with hardly any run production against starters. Three of those starters either had ERAs coming in over 6.00 or were recent callups from the minors, and no, the latter weren't top 100 prospects either. I've noticed this as a phenomenon in earlier games. We make a lot of mediocre starters look like Cy Young. This not only puts pressure on the team to beat up on relievers - it worked last night but often fails. And it stresses our own pen. So many close games means over-using our high leverage guys for stretches, unless of course, we're losing by large scores in which case they sit around idle for a week.

Facing guys you have never faced can also cause problems for whoever is facing them.We have come up against that a few times lately.
Totally agree on Vladdy.He needs to bat more with guys on base,and put a little lower in the order.That would pressure the oppositions pitchers more to not wanna face him in that scenario.