Whould you shuffle the lineup...

[orangegreenwhite]

if you were Morris? It'd be tempting to move the hottest hitters up (Ruiz/Michelangeli), but then again "if it ain't broke....". Personally, i would move Ruiz to clean up but leave Michelangeli where he is (nice to have some pop at the bottom of the order).

 

[marshallrc13]

if you were Morris? It'd be tempting to move the hottest hitters up (Ruiz/Michelangeli), but then again "if it ain't broke....". Personally, i would move Ruiz to clean up but leave Michelangeli where he is (nice to have some pop at the bottom of the order).

I would move Lopez out of the cleanup spot. He is not a cleanup hitter. He's not a 3/4/5 hitter IMO.

 

[Brian Piccolo]

I would move Lopez out of the cleanup spot. He is not a cleanup hitter. He's not a 3/4/5 hitter IMO.

Ideally he's not a 3-4-5 hitter but for this team he has worked out fine in that spot. If Heyward and Abreu had hit more this year they would be in those spots.

 

[cdcanes5036]

I wouldn't mind seeing Ruiz hit 4 and move Lopez down to 7th or 8th. I know they are trying to avoid having potentially 3 left handed bats in a row ( Collins, Ruiz and Abreu) but when Lopez is not seeing the ball well right now you can't continue to leave him in the cleanup spot.

 

[caneaddict]

brandon lopez is the worst postseason hitter I have seen at UM in my 35 years of watching them, I would definitely pull him out the 4 spot, possibly swap him with Michaelangeli

 

[marshallrc13]

I wouldn't mind seeing Ruiz hit 4 and move Lopez down to 7th or 8th. I know they are trying to avoid having potentially 3 left handed bats in a row ( Collins, Ruiz and Abreu) but when Lopez is not seeing the ball well right now you can't continue to leave him in the cleanup spot.

As a coach, you should not be overly concerned with having successive hitters that bat the same side. While it would be great to go L-R-L-R, etc to make managers more hesitant to go to the pen, you ultimately put your best players/hitters where they should be. If you happen to have numerous in a row on the same side so be it. Lopez is not protecting Collins so it makes it very easy to walk our best hitter. I would put Abreu and Michaellangeli behind Collins.

 

[CanesRebirth]

I'd roll with this personally...

Chester (R)
Ruiz (L)
Collins (L)
Michelangeli (R)
Abreu (L)
Lopez (R)
Batista (S)
Heyward (R)
Barr (L)

1) Ruiz has been swinging a hot bat. He needs to be hitting higher in the order.
2) Lopez has been sputtering a bit (at least by his standards). He doesn't give you any power in a spot in the lineup that generally demands it.
3) Edgar from the 9-hole to cleanup is a huge jump, but I like his power and he's shown a penchant for coming through in big moments.
4) That lineup still maintains good L-R-L integrity which will make it hard for teams to match up late in games.

 

[Miami04]

I guess I'm wondering why you are moving a guy batting almost .390 out of the 4 hole? For this team power is not nearly as important as protecting Collins, which is what Lopez has done a decent job of.

The only change I would make is dropping Batista to 9th and moving Ruiz to 2nd.

 

[marshallrc13]

I guess I'm wondering why you are moving a guy batting almost .390 out of the 4 hole? For this team power is not nearly as important as protecting Collins, which is what Lopez has done a decent job of.

The only change I would make is dropping Batista to 9th and moving Ruiz to 2nd.

In short he's struggling mightily and not protecting Collins. I personally would move him to #2 . He can bunt Chester to 2nd base a couple times a game and actually have value to the team. lol

 

[cane since birth]

I would move Lopez out of the cleanup spot. He is not a cleanup hitter. He's not a 3/4/5 hitter IMO.

Ideally he's not a 3-4-5 hitter but for this team he has worked out fine in that spot. If Heyward and Abreu had hit more this year they would be in those spots.

Abreu has been on a tear id put him there, im very disappointed in heyward and his play this year

 

[BWCD]

I guess I'm wondering why you are moving a guy batting almost .390 out of the 4 hole? For this team power is not nearly as important as protecting Collins, which is what Lopez has done a decent job of.

The only change I would make is dropping Batista to 9th and moving Ruiz to 2nd.

In short he's struggling mightily and not protecting Collins. I personally would move him to #2 . He can bunt Chester to 2nd base a couple times a game and actually have value to the team. lol

Agreed on most of that.

The whole reason why Batista got moved up was because he got hot near the bottom of the order and was rewarded with a promotion to the 2 spot.

It's going to be interesting to see what Morris does here, because Ruiz/Michelangeli/Collins/Abreu have all gotten hot, and Batista/Lopez/Barr have all struggled. So, there are a few options.

We can keep things where they are for the sake of continuity. We can move either Ruiz or Michelangeli to the cleanup spot to add some extra protection to Collins. In that situation...does either player perform as well in the cleanup spot as they have at 5th/9th respectively? And do you lose balance in your lineup by demoting a struggling Lopez/Batista lower into the lineup, or does a move perk them up? Lots of permutations/nuance to think through.

I would keep it the same. Everyone seems to be grooved in to the respective roles in the lineup, and we've made it this far with it.

That being said...I do like the idea of batting Lopez 2nd and Michelangeli 4th. I think that would be the premium protection for Collins at this point, but I wonder if Michelangeli's power surge comes partly from hitting 9th and getting easier pitches to hit. Also, we would have to hope that a move by Batista to 8 or 9 sparks his bat to come back to life. If he has unproductive ABs, and Barr/Heyward both continue to struggle, then that 7-8-9 part of our lineup might be 3 easy outs for the other side.

 

[cdcanes5036]

With him not hitting well right now I'd drop him to 6th in front of Heyward, Barr and Edgar. If he gets on then you have Heyward up who has done a really good job of bunting for hits lately. Barr can also bunt well. That could give you potentially 2-3 men on when Edgar gets up and with the hot bat he's swinging it gives him an opportunity to drive in more runs.

 

[caneaddict]

I guess I'm wondering why you are moving a guy batting almost .390 out of the 4 hole? For this team power is not nearly as important as protecting Collins, which is what Lopez has done a decent job of.

The only change I would make is dropping Batista to 9th and moving Ruiz to 2nd.

In short he's struggling mightily and not protecting Collins. I personally would move him to #2 . He can bunt Chester to 2nd base a couple times a game and actually have value to the team. lol

this , perfect role for lopez

 

[ILCane2011]

Part of Michelangeli's success has been that pitchers don't expect a #9 hitter to be able to drive the ball like he can. Moving him at this point in the season would be a mistake imo.

I do like the idea of switching the #2 hitter though, given Barr and Batista's failures. Lopez really would be perfect for that spot. I'd move him and hit one of Ruiz/Abreu/Heyward cleanup

 

[CTCANE]

I wouldn't mind seeing Ruiz hit 4 and move Lopez down to 7th or 8th. I know they are trying to avoid having potentially 3 left handed bats in a row ( Collins, Ruiz and Abreu) but when Lopez is not seeing the ball well right now you can't continue to leave him in the cleanup spot.

Why would you do that? Lopez had a bad game yesterday but 3 hits on Saturday. He is also hitting .380 I could see moving him to 2nd because Batista is 1-20 (even though that hit won the game and regionals for us).

 

[BP Joe]

If he does anything, I suspect Morris might swap Batista and Barr and go back to the previous lineup. Batista has looked a little like a deer in the headlights in the regionals and Barr was there last year.

Lopez had a bad game Sunday but has otherwise been arguably our second best clutch hitter, and his style of spraying the ball plays well at TD Ameritrade.

 

[imurcane]

I won't fault JM if he mixes it up or keeps it as is. How many times have we seen hot supers slow down in Omaha, and others step up?