Manny Should Be Batting 3rd

[Ruzious]

Or by stupidly batting him leadoff minimizing his rbi chances and his chances of a multi run homer.

Otoh, batting him leadoff gives him a chance to maximize pretty much everything else.

It's like clapdiddy said - If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That logic worked for him staying at 3B rather than SS.

[Frobby]

I don't.

Neither do I. Having your top OBP guy, who also has some speed, batting first makes plenty of sense.

[Ruzious]

Neither do I. Having your top OBP guy, who also has some speed, batting first makes plenty of sense.

Yeah, when you have arguably the top leadoff man in baseball and the top 3rd baseman in baseball, don't go changing (as Billy Joel might sing).

[WNY Orioles Fan]

As much praise as there is for Manny in this thread, I still think everyone here is under-selling how good he is. In my opinion he's already the best player in the AL not named Trout. I'm also of the opinion that his power will only increase from here.

He's one of the ultra-rare players in the game that can move the needle of a ballclub all by himself... and if we don't lock him up in the next year or so, I fear that we'll lose him.

I agree to a certain extent, but he's not better than Cabrera...Yet. But yeah, Manny is the 3rd place hitter if I ever saw one. We need to find a legitimate leadoff hitter to replace him though.

[Old#5fan]

You'd rather have the best hitter batting third, often coming up with two out and no one on because you're intentionally putting worse hitters at the top of the lineup, than just have the best hitter getting the most PAs and setting up the inning with runners on?

Yeah but those worse hitters are usually much better than the 8 and 9 hitters aren't they?

[DrungoHazewood]

Yeah but those worse hitters are usually much better than the 8 and 9 hitters aren't they?

The 8 and 9 hitters are going to come up anyway. If you bat Travis Snider leadoff then he'll be coming up with the 8 and 9 hitters either not on base at all, or if they are on base he'll be trying to power them in with his sub-.400 SLG%. There's no way to avoid having your worst hitters come up. Shuffling around the lineup is of very minimal value. But I look forward to your rebuttal, about why Buck is not bright and how the O's would score tons more runs by doing something.

[Herman]

Yes, better players would make us better and it's too bad Rickey Henderson isn't laying around. What a great case. Thanks Herman.

What an insightful rebuttal!

Don't you know management is incompetent and Herman is on the case. I guess we can't get Upton because he's not a leadoff hitter and our idiot management will still have Manny batting leadoff.

Wow...another doozy! Perhaps instead of trying to be funny you should get your head out of your rear end and acknowledge that the team would be better off with a player who is more suitable to bat leadoff so that Manny can hit 2-5 and have more opportunities to hit with men on base. This is such a simple concept. Perhaps someone should write it out in crayon for you.

Exactly. Plus he is thriving hitting first. Just a huge non issue here.

You're right, huge non issue! The offense is perfectly fine.

[CA-ORIOLE]

What an insightful rebuttal!

Wow...another doozy! Perhaps instead of trying to be funny you should get your head out of your rear end and acknowledge that the team would be better off with a player who is more suitable to bat leadoff so that Manny can hit 2-5 and have more opportunities to hit with men on base. This is such a simple concept. Perhaps someone should write it out in crayon for you.

You're right, huge non issue! The offense is perfectly fine.

[Herman]

I can't even believe we are rehashing this subject after it was discussed to the death about a week ago.

Manny is batting leadoff because he's our best OBP guy (by a large margin) and he is one of the best baserunners on the team. Just like Brady was our leadoff hitter the year he hit 50 home runs. I think it's true he'd have more RBI's if we were batting 3rd or 4th. I doubt the team would score any more runs, though. And in any event, the effect is so small it's just not that worth of lengthy discussion.

The offense in 1996 was a lot better than the offense this year. A big part of the problem is that the Orioles don't have anyone else who can bat leadoff. The fact that Manny has t do it illustrates my point.

I'm complaining because we can do better. In this time of struggling with RISP, wouldn't you rather have our best hitter up when there are men on base instead? But due to the way the lineup is constructed, he isn't getting those chances.

You won't get through to them. They don't actually watch the games they just follow the box scores and spend several hours a day on fangraphs.

Otoh, batting him leadoff gives him a chance to maximize pretty much everything else.

It's like clapdiddy said - If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That logic worked for him staying at 3B rather than SS.

Completely different

Again...if it ain't broke...

What's the team's record again? How has the offense performed for 2 of the past 3 months?

The 8 and 9 hitters are going to come up anyway. If you bat Travis Snider leadoff then he'll be coming up with the 8 and 9 hitters either not on base at all, or if they are on base he'll be trying to power them in with his sub-.400 SLG%. There's no way to avoid having your worst hitters come up. Shuffling around the lineup is of very minimal value. But I look forward to your rebuttal, about why Buck is not bright and how the O's would score tons more runs by doing something.

Perhaps the problem is that Travis Snider was the most significant offseason acquisition. Like CA-ORIOLE kindly pointed out for us, if they had better players this would be a lot easier. This is a simple concept - if the Orioles had a player on the roster more suitable to bat leadoff (which they don't and I have complained about this numerous all season) then Manny would be able to slide down in the lineup and have more opportunities to hit with men on base.

[Herman]

[CA-ORIOLE]

Like CA-ORIOLE kindly pointed out for us, if they had better players this would be a lot easier. This is a simple concept - if the Orioles had a player on the roster more suitable to bat leadoff (which they don't and I have complained about this numerous all season) then Manny would be able to slide down in the lineup and have more opportunities to hit with men on base.

We have the players we have and Machado is perfectly suitable batting leadoff.

It is a very simple concept. Why are you having an issue with it? You think that other posters here would be against having better performing players? .

[backwardsk]

I don't know if Manny should be batting 3rd, but ideally he should not be batting leadoff. He needs to hit in a spot in the order where he gets more opportunities to hit with men on base and drive in runs and this team needs a leadoff hitter. I have made this argument several times over the past several weeks/months and I will continue to. Hopefully the front office effectively uses the freed up money in the offseason.

How many more opportunities do you think he would have if he hit 3rd than first?

In July, Jones has had 5 more PAs with runners in scoring position than Manny. Five. That's about 1 in 3 games.

How has Aoki, the guy you wanted, doing? Has he been on base this month?

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[Frobby]

The offense in 1996 was a lot better than the offense this year. A big part of the problem is that the Orioles don't have anyone else who can bat leadoff. The fact that Manny has to do it illustrates my point.

Well, I can't disagree with that. If we had a vintage BRob on this team, Manny wouldn't be batting leadoff. All I am saying is that with the current team, I don't think batting Manny leadoff is a bad strategy.

[weams]

Not just OBP, but ability to knock the leadoff or second guy from 1st to 3rd with less than two outs, ability to produce extra base hits. Yes, that would create more opportunities for the 4th and 5th hitters.

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It is such a small difference that keeping him where he has most effective in his entire career - seeing the most fastballs, is probably a good trade off.

[weams]

Well, I can't disagree with that. If we had a vintage BRob on this team, Manny wouldn't be batting leadoff. All I am saying is that with the current team, I don't think batting Manny leadoff is a bad strategy.

Nor do I. He dances like a leadoff hitter.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If you give them up that's the way to do it. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/bomb?src=hash">#bomb</a> RT <a href="https://twitter.com/MLB">@MLB</a>: Machado’s in that home run groove. <a href="http://t.co/nwa6nFOI5P">http://t.co/nwa6nFOI5P</a> <a href="http://t.co/MSus82mRLL">pic.twitter.com/MSus82mRLL</a></p>— David Price (@DAVIDprice14) <a href="

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