Comments on: Robin Ventura wants A.J. Pierzynski batting second? Seriously?

By: jlove42

jlove42 — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 03:43:14 +0000

You can have him, plug him wherever you want. I’d love to see Beckham playing for you guys up there. To me, it looks like he has Adam Dunn’s plate approach minus the ability to still draw walks.

By: jason1214

jason1214 — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:10:29 +0000

Really? Cub would love to take him off your hands and plug him @2nd. I agree Rios batting 3rd is HORRIBLE.

By: jason1214

jason1214 — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:09:37 +0000

Agreed, but I’d still rather have Beckham, than Rios

By: ultimatehitcoach

ultimatehitcoach — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 22:10:42 +0000

the best way to go is to get a.j. involved is by putting him up in the order. when he’s down, he’s an absolute idiot. the bad news is he is a great dp guy. gordy bacon makes contact so infrequently he is not a good choice either. he’s an 8 or 9. to put more pressure on him to make contact..bad.
before opening day, you can pencil in anybody anywhere in the lineup or rotation.but the reality is EVERYONE will earn their way to wherever they end up.. be it #2 hitter, or #5 in the rotation. the likelihood that everyone will end up where they’re expected to end up.. NOT. some will surprise, some will disappoint.
everyone will play themselves into the exact place they deserve to be. time spent on conjecture & speculation at this point..is time wasted. never mind.
it will be what it will be. what that is, no one can say with anything degree of certainty. other than adam dunn will not have a uniform by june1

By: WhenMattStairsIsKing

WhenMattStairsIsKing — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:17:16 +0000

I can’t stand ballplayers that don’t know how to hold the bat. They try to hit the ball with their forearms…the whole thing’s just a damned mess.

By: jasonc2300

jasonc2300 — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 18:16:07 +0000

It’s easy snark, but let’s be honest here: if Dunn, Rios, and Beckham don’t bounce back at least a little, it doesn’t really matter who bats where.

By: jlove42

jlove42 — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:06:14 +0000

AJ batting 2nd is a fairly garbage lineup move that pales in comparison to giving Alex Rios and his 2011 .227/265/.348 the 3rd spot in the lineup because he’s faster than Konerko (!!). Great, give Konerko less at-bats on the season because he’s slower than Rios, even though he makes Rios look like a little leaguer at the plate.

So what is the over/under on percentage of 1st innings that Konerko won’t bat in this season if this De Aza, Pierzynski, Rios thing happens?

By: deathmonkey41

deathmonkey41 — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:54:04 +0000

Maybe batting AJ second is the key to beating Bruce Chen and Ozzie missed it?

By: skeleteeth

skeleteeth — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 13:42:38 +0000

Hopefully he’ll get hit more.

By: vincentbojackson

vincentbojackson — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 13:13:44 +0000

AJ doesn’t need to be fast. You don’t need speed to walk back to the dugout from second base after watching Dunn strikeout on three pitches.

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 11:42:47 +0000

Nothing Ventura-ed nothing gained. Hold your nose and hope it is just a spring training experiment.

By: christos99

christos99 — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 08:27:15 +0000

With Ventura’s plan, you’ll see this scenario play out often:
Leadoff batter De Aza = single
2nd, A.J.= GDP
3rd, Paulie = double
4th, Adam Done = K
Inning over…

By: jlove42

jlove42 — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 06:58:50 +0000

Any roster sans Beckham is a better roster.

I also think that batting Rios 3rd is an even worse mistake than putting AJ at 2nd.

By: jwbiii

jwbiii — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 05:05:11 +0000

And we’re not too sure about Beckham.

By: jason1214

jason1214 — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 04:24:05 +0000

Something tells me Ventura was the only guy, KWill could could get to manage that horror show of a roster sans Konerko, Beckham, Danks, Ramirez & Floyd of course…

By: ptfu

ptfu — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 03:00:13 +0000

This.

The Sox don’t have anyone THAT much better than Pierzynski to hit 2nd. So that makes Ventura only a little crazy. His true insanity is shown when he says that Pierzynski hitting 2nd somehow means Konerko and Dunn can’t hit 3rd-4th because of their speed…

By: frankvzappa

frankvzappa — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 02:33:37 +0000

Considering all the attention lately about how blows to the head can adversely affect the long-term mental faculties of the athletes who experience said blows, it is surprising nobody saw decisions like this coming.

By: jfegan

jfegan — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 02:29:04 +0000

Uh, have you gotten a load of the OBP’s for the other guys in the lineup?

By: thetruth113

thetruth113 — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 02:13:20 +0000

A guy with a .323 OBP is a tough out? Ventura is setting bar really, really low. I can’t wait to hear his praise of Adam Dunn’s ability to put the ball in play

By: visnovsky

visnovsky — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 01:58:32 +0000

Being able to “handle the bat” is the stupidest ‘compliment’ a manager can hand out. It means absolutely nothing to winning ball games and is just an excuse for the manager to make a stupid, boneheaded decision.

By: Gonzo

Gonzo — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 01:56:24 +0000

He should meet with Nolan Ryan, who could knock some sense into him.

By: mikeincmn

mikeincmn — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 01:56:01 +0000

I know its incredibly early and thus probably isn’t fair for me to say just yet, but as nice of a guy as Ventura may be, I still fail to see how he got the job on anything other than good old boys club workings. Nothing against the guy and I know the franchise and team is being strip mined by Williams, but surely you can configure a somewhat logical line up no matter how average to bad most of your roster will be.

AJ probably shouldnt be starting, much less batting in a the freaking 2 hole.