Because Chris Sale kills lefties.
Holy Rick Porcello Batman! 12 up, 12 down through 4!
But thats not a good reason for him batting 2nd.
Leyland still has an asinine attachment to keep every player in the same hole of the lineup.
It's not "asinine." A player's place in the order does have a mental aspect to it. But more importantly:
Raburn batting with Cabrera behind him usually means that Raburn will get some good fastballs to hit. Raburn has the pop to put a poorly thrown fastball over the fence (unlike the guys as the bottom of the order who are either left-handed or have little power).
EDIT: Also, I wouldn't be surprised to see Q replace Raburn at some point, in which case you'd want him in the #2 slot.
Its also about refusing to swap Delmon/ move up Jhonny. By that logic i'd rather one of them there. Delmon as much as i can't stand him has been good against lefties, and would do same thing there.
And seriously since i disagree its flamebait?
You can disagree, but you don't have to do so in a sophomoric manner by saying "Jim Leyland has an assinine attachment..."
Fact is, there are reasons for not moving those guys up. Sure, there's an argument to make to move them, but there's another sound argument the other way. You can disagree with either without saying the other is assinine.
You want Delmon protecting Fielder. That's a given - he's really the only major power thread the Tigers have outside of Fielder and Cabrera. So then it's a matter of moving Peralta up or not. If you move him up, you kill the bottom half of your order and you take away any protection for Delmon.
Could you imagine Delmon trying to hit with nobody behind him? I don't think he'd ever get a fastball.
You're marking me as flamebait because i use "asinine" instead of something else like "stubborn"? I would think with delmon his power is against lefties i can buy youre argument. But If not platooning him, he should at least slide down vs righties. His recent hot streak has been against a ton of lefties. If you move Jhonny up you would have to move someone else down so i don't quite buy the destroying bottom of the order.
A: I'm not marking you as flambait. I marked your original "assinine" comment as flambait, and that's it. Other people are also doing that. I'm not holding some little agenda here.
B: Holy shit, someone just called that Boesch homer!
C: Leyland (and most managers) want power threats, not just average guys, behind you're big guns to counter IBBs with potential multi-run homers. Regardless of their success this year (Jhonny's hitting for the same average with half the homers BTW), Delmon has the proven track record re: homers.
A) Fair enough on that one, the other leyland lovers need to grow up then.
B) Yep
C) I can agree with that, but what about the lefty/righty splits? If the averages are close that makes sense, but there is a pretty big difference (Delmon .258 BA .643 OPS vs righties and Jhonny .285, .756)
Trying to get inside Leyland's head here...
As much as we all know Leyland is a firm believer of righty/lefty matchups, we also know he is a fan of the long ball. I go back to the power argument. I think Leyland prefers the more significant upgrade in power to be behind Fielder as opposed to the smaller upgrade in average.
I tend to agree with that argument for the reason I mentioned above. If someone walks Fielder with the bases empty or first base empty I want the next guy to be able to make them pay with one swing of the bat.
And the final point again, is Delmon is too much of a free swinger to have much success without a decent hitter behind him.
But DY hasn't really been more of a power threat this year vs RHP then Jhonny. They both are at ~220 ABs vs RHP which is a decent sample size (not tiny) and Jhonny has a better SLG% 416 vs 356 along witha better AVG and OBP. Thats why i had included the OPS.
You have a point, but I'd bet Q berry would have a better line than 0-3, GIDP, 2 K thus far.
the 2 K's being on 6 pitches.
Well, he can't have worse, but have you seen how silly Sale has made Boesch look? I don't think it's a stretch to say Q would be having a tough time out there and may similarly have struggled to even make contact.
I'm still hoping for Brennan to unload a massive HR to right field as he likes to do off lefties.
You Wizard!
First HR given up to a lefty by Sale this year.
Et Porcello est tres bien!
I don't like Raburn when he plays baseball.
However it will be interesting to see how his hand affects him for the rest of the game. The bullpen is very young and has been struggling as of late.
Wonder when Sale's innings will finally catch up to him. He's ridiculously good, but I wonder when he'll start to get tired. Keep it up Rick and let's get some offense going boys.
The White Sox have been in first almost all year but their attendance is below-average (23K per game). Why don't they have better fan support?
As you mentioned the White Sox have been in first most the year but attendance has been terrible. However the Cubs are one of the worst teams yet they seem to always fill Wrigley. Unfortunately that seems to be the way it's been here for awhile. Complete opposites here.
and Chris Perez.
Cleveland's weird. For awhile they sold out every game at the Jake (when it was called that). Now no one comes. Are they protesting the change of name?
Protesting the front office. They don't like how they are low budget and trade away big names (Lee, CC).
It's definitely a Cubs city. I used to live in Chi and was always amazed at how many Tigers fans would show up at the Cell for Tigs-Sox series.
Went there with the mrs to catch a tigers game and it's worse than the Mud Hens and Clippers parks. Cheap, none of the majesty of KC or Comerica
I was driving through Chicago a few weeks back and there were signs screaming about how they were leading the division and needed fan support.
Chris Sale good, but it's just one of those rookie pitcher phenomenons; though I admit he is better than Hellickson and Chacin before they came back to earth.
This is Chris Sale's third year. He's been in the league since 2010 so he's not a rookie. However it is his first year as a starter since he was in college. He was drafted in 2010 and entered the league in 2010 as well. He was always strong out of the bullpen but everyone here has been pretty surprised the way he's been as a starter. I think it's tough to assume he's only going to be good this year.
Anyone have any idea what happened to Sale? I saw that he tried to field a ball with his pitching hand. I saw that they looked at him and had Axelrod warming up, but that was the last I saw. Any update on that?
Also, Ricky looks fantastic today. Ricky is just as inconsistent as Max. We need to see more Good Ricky.
Also, in honor of "Give him the heater, Ricky," I give you the best of Lou Brown.
On an unrelated note, Why was RA Dickey pitching in the 9th inning earlier today? Gave up a 2 HR jack to the almight Uribe.
AJax Baby!!
Jackson sooooo freaking good. As great as the big guns have been he is by far the Tigers MVP thus far.
AJ has been great, but I think its a bit of a stretch to say he "is by far" the team MVP when Miggy is playing like he is. I think having Miggy out of the lineup would hurt us more than having AJ out.
He sets the table, there's no coincidence this team struggled a bit when Jackson went on the DL. Miggy has been incredible but Jackson has been a consistent force all season and his defense is 2nd to none. I think your point is valid but I think AJ has still been the MVP to this point.
The Tigers are certainly better with Jackson than without, but that doesn't make him more valuable than Cabrera. It's not like Cabrera went on the DL when Jackson came back. They have both in the lineup now.
Cabrera leads the AL in hits and is not too far away in HR and RBI, and his OPS is off the charts. Plus, he has a knack for clutch hitting. It seems like he's had a ton of 2-out hits lately.
Like I said its a valid argument to make that Miggy is an national MVP candidate but Jackson production out of the lead off spot has been great. .313, 10 knocks, 40+ RBI and has really come into his own. People were complaining (rightfully so) that our biggest need was a lead off hitter, well guess what he have one.
I guess I kind of expect Miggy to put up these kinds of numbers every year because he's going to be a 1st ballot HOF'er, where Jackson's production has been a monumental surprise.
Lets just have them both stay healthy and we can have 2 MVPs in the lineup. Not to mention one on the mound.
Especially when AJ was on the DL for a while and Q did an admirable job filling in and earned staying up here. If Cabrera went down we don't have someone who could fill in like that.
Worth and G-money getting the job done, no one else.
EDIT: Sorry Austin, spoke too soon.
Q: Raburn is hitting second, but do you know who hits after him?
A: The White Sox.
Ba-Zing.
Seriously, though. It's only a matter of time that he gets dumped like Inge did earlier this year. They CANNOT keep running him out there if he isn't producing. Not even Leyland can be that stubborn.
What's your policy on "hot ice"?
Wow, didn't even see your signature line when I posted that. I guess you're a step ahead of me. Love it.
My policy is the only policy on Hot Ice. It's the best of both worlds!
It's all about the three R's: Readiness, Recuperation, and Conditioning.
Tim McCarver as one of the best color analysts ever? John Madden's career has nothing on him?!? Jesus H. Christ dipped in barbecue sauce.
Gawd, imagine if Cabrera had a #2 hitter in front of him.
Brennaman sucks, and McCarver is worse. Fox national broadcasting teams are terrible in general, whether it be their football or baseball coverage.
Leyland has to get his team ready to play and no longer has time for dumb line-up questions
Well, if he'd quit putting the Hitless Hillbilly in the #2 hole, he won't have to deal with nearly as many lineup questions.