Open Thread: Should Cano bat fifth?
January 8, 2010, 8:00 pm by iYankees · 14 Comments
In Bryan Hoch’s recent article outlining Kevin Long’s busy winter schedule, he writes, “One question is who will bat fifth behind Rodriguez, and Long wonders if Robinson Cano could be ready.” With that, I ask, is Robinson Cano ready to bat behind Alex Rodriguez? Last season, he had the worst clutch score in all of baseball and he hit .207/.242/.332 with RISP. If you think that’s just a one-year sample, in 2008, he hit .263/.294/.359 with RISP, though he was much better in 2006 (.835 OPS) and 2007 (.774 OPS). I would argue that a hitter with a more patient approach is ultimately needed there, but that’s just one opinion, as Cano’s tremendous plate coverage could also be very useful in the fifth spot.
In 50 games there this season, he hit .299/.318/.477. Not bad, but he has always been better hitting 6th or 7th.
What do you think? Should he get a shot or should someone else — Posada, Granderson, Swisher — get the nod?
Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
With the caveat that I side with the people who argue stats with RISP are very volatile and vary dramatically from season to season, so we shouldn’t put much if any stock into them, I would hit Posada 5th against LHP and Granderson 5th against RHP.
Cano is very good, but Posada > Cano against LHP and Granderson > Cano against RHP.
Although lineup construction is probably over-rated, assuming you don’t do something crazy like bat ARod 8th, oh wait…
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Love this comment – agree totally. Especially joke about batting arod 8th. What was Torre thinking? Publicly embarrassing your best player just because he was in a slump . If that didn’t prove torre disliked him nothing did -except for his book where he confirmed it.
Would torre ever have batted jeter or Bernie 8th if they were in a slump?
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As far as Cano at 5 – maybe some day – but not until he learns patience at the plate. Once he learns to work the count he’ll get more fastballs over the plate and he’ll hit 35 hrs and 100 rbis.
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I agree with you Twasp leave him in the 7 hole and he will put up big #’s.
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I like Granderson to protect Arod in the 5th batting spot. If Kevin Long can smooth out some of the mental issues Granderson has with regards to left handed pitching and minimize his strikeouts, his power could be very dangerous in New Yankee Stadium. If he can stay healthy he could be a 40+ homerun guy. If you consider both Texiera and Arod to be 40+ homerun guys, the middle of the Yankee order could be very productive.
In regards to Cano, I think he will eventually move up in the order but he’ll have to prove to be more consistant with RISP and ground into fewer DP’s. I don’t think the 2010 Yankee lineup has any room for him higher than 6th or 7th in the order.
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Can you imagine that line-up if Grandy takes advantage of right field fence? You start off with 2 .400 obp batters, you then have the 09 AL hr champ, the eventual all time HR champ, 40+ grandy, and the best hitting AL catcher (not named Mauer). that’s just ridiculous . The bottom 3 only includes a .320 hitter, a 29 hr hitter and the fastest guy in baseball.
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I think Cano should be given a chance at #5 again in ST, if he can’t do it (yet) move him back. Otherwise go with Swisher/Grandy at #5.
Twasp….your post of 10:44 hit it right on target.
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Thanks Ken.
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The only thing with Grandy batting 5th is he would be vulnerable to a late inning loogy. In a potential ralley they wouldn’t pitch to ARod & would mitigate the bat of Granderson with the lefty.
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Basil – what’s a loogy? A lefty?
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loogy stands for: Lefty One Out GuY… a lefty that comes in to face just one batter someone that bats left-handed & is vulnerable to left-handed pitching.
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Thanks for the explanation basil. Agree with yor comment. That’s what was good about Matsui . They’d bring in a loogy and Godzilla would pound him . Torre said whenever the opposing mgr would come out to bring in a lefty to face matsui, jeter would stand up and yell ” you don’t want to do that”.
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I would bat N.J. 5TH.He hits lefty’s and righty’s he’s not vulnerable to late inning loogy.His lifetime #’s with risp are very good,avg.over 300,ops over 900.I think he would afford Arod the best protection on team outside Tex.His power #’s should also go up at home which will help.On the negative don’t like his speed in 2 hole.Would rather see Granderson there against righty’s and Swisher against lefty’s.This is my biggest fear not having Matsui to protect Arod.
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Agree Ballpark – without Godzilla and his clutch reputation Arod’s going to be pitched inside repeatedly with no concern about hitting him. Like the Phillies did but even more. Predict Arod gets plunked more than any other player in baseball in 2010 . Sabathia, Burnett (tough, team oriented players) will return the favor – leading to a minimum of 5 bench-clearing brawls. Arod will feel obliged to get into the middle of the fracas jeopardizing our best hitter with a possibleseason ending injury. Godzilla take the red-eye back to NY – we miss you .
CJ – how’d you like this comment?
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