Giancarlo Stanton, OF

[Party]

Dan Uggla is putting up better numbers.

Jorge Cantu batted 4th despite his .703 OPS in the month of May. Uggla had an .870 OPS in May and only batted 4th once.

[FishFF]

Cantu's OPS was .920 in April.
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Also has an OPS of 1.067 with RISP. Leads league in ribs

[Party]

Right, but he had a shitty month of May and Fredi did not adjust the lineup. MK7's point is a legitimate one.

Uggla also had a better year in 2009 and Cantu was in the cleanup spot.

[Mainge]

Touche.

[emkayseven]

I mean, there's just no reason to stick with a lineup for a year, or two or three like we do. Ride the hot hand and make changes. There is no reason Cantu should be batting cleanup right now when Uggla is out-OPSing him the way he is.

Also unless you believe that clutch hitting is a skill (which I do not) RBIs are a near-pointless stat.

[Mainge]

I think situational hitting is a skill.

[Bobbob1313]

I think certain guys are more well equipped to drive runs in, but I do like the idea of having a guy like Cantu (who makes a good amount of contact and hits for decent power, but doesn't get on base well) moved back behind Uggla and Hanley and the on base guys.

Frankly, our offense has like 4 good OBP guys (assuming Coghlan gets back on track, like he appears), and 4 guys (if we count stanton as part of our starting 8) who are bit more on the power, lower on base side. I would be fine with the 4 OBP guys at the top and the power guys behind them, but maybe you could stagger it so that it's not so feast or famine in the bottom half. So Uggla's a good choice to bump down one spot for that to get a better contact guy into the top half to put some balls in play.

I mean, just listing them by (My) expected OBP, I'd be OK with this lineup for that reason:

CC (.350)
Gaby (.350)
Hanley (.390)
Cantu (.330)
Uggla (.360)
Stanton (.330)
Cody (.320)
Paulino (.330)

That way you've got 3 of your 4 top OBP guys at the top, a contact guy who is a good "situational hitter" (he'll get you a fly ball if you need him to, stuff like that that Uggla doesn't necessarily do), another OBP who also hits for power to clear the bases, and then the feast or famine guys behind him.

It might not be the optimum, but it's certainly not clueless.
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Also, Cantu's OPS in May was hurt by, basically a bad 12 game stretch to start the month. He had a .920 OPS in April, a .469 from June 1-13, and then a .918 OPS in the 18 games since then, not counting tonight. He's been quite alright, for the most part.

[Swifty]

I think lineup protection is vastly overrated.

I don't think it's the end-all-be-all that some portray it to be, but it does have some impact on how the player "protected" gets pitched. In that regard, I would hope that we give Stanton the opportunity to be afforded the fastball protection. I like the 5th idea, I like the 6th idea, I do not like the 7th idea.

[Mainge]

I don't think it's the end-all-be-all that some portray it to be, but it does have some impact on how the player "protected" gets pitched. In that regard, I would hope that we give Stanton the opportunity to be afforded the fastball protection. I like the 5th idea, I like the 6th idea, I do not like the 7th idea.

We will never agree on this. If teams know they can get him out with junk, then he's going to get junk, regardless of who's behind him. If they know he's going to swing at a 2-0 curve, then he's going to get a 2-0 curve.

He will decide how teams pitch him, not Hanley Ramirez.

[Swifty]

I agree completely that the scouting report is going to dictate how he is pitched, but right now, it's a very incomplete scouting report.

I don't think putting Uggla in front of Hanley is going to get Uggla more fastballs, because the book is out on Uggla. I do think putting a guy like Stanton in front of Hanley is going to get him, at least initially, situations where the pitcher typically wouldn't challenge him to instead try to go after him. Now, come September that won't be the case, but for the first two weeks of Stanton's debut (or at least until he faces the same team twice) they're going to be flying relatively blind on him so lineup protection could be very real with him.

[Mainge]

I think I can kinda sorta get behind that.

[MiamiHomer]

Stanton update tonight: 1/1 3B R

[Swifty]

Rosenthal in the booth now saying that the ETA we all had in mind (this road trip) is now in jeopardy.

[MiamiHomer]

So Stanton will be up tomorrow?

[PitchingWinsGames]

I agree completely that the scouting report is going to dictate how he is pitched, but right now, it's a very incomplete scouting report.

I don't think putting Uggla in front of Hanley is going to get Uggla more fastballs, because the book is out on Uggla. I do think putting a guy like Stanton in front of Hanley is going to get him, at least initially, situations where the pitcher typically wouldn't challenge him to instead try to go after him. Now, come September that won't be the case, but for the first two weeks of Stanton's debut (or at least until he faces the same team twice) they're going to be flying relatively blind on him so lineup protection could be very real with him.

I think general luck or streakiness would have a profoundly larger effect on Stanton than something as fickle as attempting to manipulate the pitching, especially in that short of a timespan. That being said, it probably wouldn't hurt, but I don't see it being a big deal.