Thursday, March 26, 2009

Joe Girardi Reads "Fack Youk"

Back in January, I desperately pleaded for Joe Girardi to bat Derek Jeter leadoff due to his higher OBP but higher tendency to ground into double plays and effectively waste Johnny Damon's solid OBP.

According to fellow Mick blogger Kat O'Brien of Newsday, it appears that Joe G. has begun to follow my advice:

Derek Jeter will be the leadoff hitter and Johnny Damon will bat second, a top of the lineup switch the Yankees will use for the rest of spring training.

Manager Joe Girardi said the reason for the switch is because the team likes how Damon has looked batting second in spring training games. As long as the Yankees like what they see over the final week of spring training games, the team will bring this lineup into the regular season.
Very refreshing in various aspects. First of all, Joe Girardi clearly reads our blog. Second, if I fail to get a legal job, which looks like the case, I could be a Big League manager. Third, it is nice to have a skipper who is not scared of stats and to break away from horrid logic like "Derek Jeter has always batted 2nd. Therefore he should always bat 2nd".

Let's hope Giradi gives this line up a chance and doesn't let the small sample size of one week in Spring Training derail potential goodness.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you Peter Abraham for stealing my analysis without attribution.

    http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2009/03/26/jeter-leading-off-it-makes-sense/

    ReplyDelete