The curious part of Joe Maddon's spring training routine has been his batting orders. They are all over the place. But one oddity keeps cropping up: batting Anthony Rizzo in the #2 spot.
Traditionally, No. 2 hitters have great bat control, patience to coax a walk and can bunt,
move runners over and get on base with their speed.
However, Sabermetric diehards favor putting
the best batters in that position because No. 2 hitters typically get 18 more at-bats per
season than the player batting third.
The purpose of constructing a batting order to put players in the best position to create run scoring opportunities. One puts good hitting, on base hitters ahead of power hitters. It adds to the chance of scoring multiple runs with one swing of the bat. “The whole point is to feed the guys that drive in points,” Maddon
said. “That’s what the whole thing is — who feeds that, and who’s the
guy that, if you have a productive bottom part of the batting order, who
takes advantage of that?”
So far, Maddon has placed Rizzo, believed to be the best consistent hitter in the regular line up, five times in the second slot. Reserve outfielder Chris Denorfia has batted second four times and utilityman Arismendy Alcantara twice. Last season, Alcantara batted second 14 times while playing CF, a position he lost to current leadoff man Dexter Fowler.
Javy Baez led the Cubs last season with 52 starts there, but his high strike out profile forces Maddon to put him down the lineup.
By putting Rizzo in the second slot, Maddon has been penciling in Starlin Castro in the third spot. Castro does not do very well batting third. Some say that Castro's best spot is leadoff, like his mentor Alfonso Soriano, because he would see more fast balls. Castro has spent most of his career batting second, so why fix something that is not broken?
The one thing that needs to happen soon (with less than three weeks to Opening Night) is for Maddon to settle on a set line up card. Players prefer to have a set order so they can prepare their roles in advance of game day. A player is a creature of habit.
It would seem the final lineup card could look like this:
1. Fowler cf
2. Castro ss
3. Rizzo 1b
4. Soler rf
5. Montero c
6. Coghlan lf
7. Olt 3b
8. LaStella/Alcantara 2b
9. Pitcher
This line up presupposes that Baez goes down to Iowa to work on his strike out issues. If not, he flips the order with Coghlan at #6. When Bryant is called up, he goes to clean up and the rest of the order moves down a slot.
