Time to Change the Reds Batting Order

Listening to a discussion on radio yesterday about how Dusty Baker (45 years in the game, 3 MOY awards, 1,500) wins should change the batting order.  Lance McCallister (0 years in the game, 0 MOY awards, and 0 wins as a major league manager, is wasting away behind a microphone.

McCallister believes that Zack Cozart is struggling because the strain of hitting leadoff is too much for him.  A conclusion that he has come to NOT by showing up in the clubhouse, or watching him all spring, or going over reports from Reds player development personnel but directly out of the Bill James book, written by a security guard with way too much time on his hands.

Cozart is indeed struggling, would he be struggling the same in the two hole, three hole, eight hole? Well yeah.  Hitting a baseball is hard.  Hitting it at the major league level is infinitely harder.  Add to the fact that Cozart has been generally a slow starter even in the minor leagues.  I had a conversation with Yonder Alonso, who came up through the minors with Cozart.  "Tell him to keep at it," Alonso said.  "He starts out slow and then just takes off."  Since we are just 37 games into the season, seven more than were played in spring training and less than 25% through the season.  The year is still young and Cozart will adjust.

In the major leagues any weakness a hitter has will be exposed by major league pitching, reading major league scouting reports, rather than listening to radio blather.

Assuming the position in the batting order is the cause and effect for Cozart's woes, then try this one.

Dusty Baker likes to break up the two lefthanders in the lineup, Joey Votto and Jay Bruce.  Why?  He knows how the game works.  In the late innings the opposing manager has to pick his poison.  Does he spend his lone lefty on Votto and leave him in to face Phillips, the best cleanup option right now?  That leaves Bruce to hit off the righthander or at the very least the second best lefty.

McAllister insists Bruce should bat behind Votto to keep him from being walked.  That won't happen.  Votto is going to be pitched around whether Bruce is batting behind him or Phillips is batting behind him  Why make it easy on the opposing manager?  With Bruce batting behind Votto, now the manager can leave the righty in to pitch around Votto, then bring his best lefty in to face Bruce.

Bruce is on a pace to hit 40 home runs.  First of all projecting numbers based on less than 25% of the season is ridiculous but if McCallister believes that the spot in the batting order has that much influence on your statistics, then it would be foolish to change Bruce's spot in the lineup.

And making even less sense is McCallister insisting they fire Brook Jacoby.  Did he sleep walk through the last few seasons?  The Reds have been at the top of the National League in runs scored.  Why on earth would you fire the hitting coach?  He says that it would throw a bone to the fans.  Tell me when the last time you bought a ticket or chose not to buy at ticket based on who the hitting coach was.

Coaches don't swing the bat.  Coaches only make suggestions or lend a second set of eyes to a players swing.  It is 100 % up to the player to make adjustments and put them into practice.  The only way a hitting coach should be fired is if the players themselves lose confidence in the coach.  That is not the case with Jacoby.  It was the case with Jim Lefebvre a few years ago but is not the case now.

Let Dusty manage the team.  Let Jacoby do his job.  Let McCallister apply for a major league managers job if that's what he thinks he is capable of doing.