Bpm793

Dear God, they FINALLY did it. The Reds made, dare I say it...a smart move. While I question the removal of Hatteberg (guy bats around .290 for his career, great glove and is left-handed. If anything else, he'd be good trade material late in the season. Heck, Jeff Conine got a good deal last year, and he bats .260), we did what mattered, which is get Bruce the heck up to the majors. And how does he respond? Six straight appearences on base. Only one player has ever gotten more to start off their career. Ever. No, he won't keep this up all season, but he can be at least as productive as Patterson is. 0-8 in a game where your team gets more than 20 hits?!? That's a DOUBLE golden sombraro, ladies and gentlemen. The average monkey can do better than that. Certainly the #1 prospect in America can. Even if he does go 0-8, at least he'd be learning against valid competition. The way he was playing in the minors, you'd think he was Jesus reincarnated into a inhuman-slugging-percentage-batting form. There is a reason we were willing to let go of Hamilton. The loss of a superstar centerfielder is okay when you have another coming down the pipeline. And now he's finally proving it. He won't make the all-star game, or challenge the Triple Crown. At least not this year. But a year or two from now...well, lets just say I don't think Josh Hamilton will be remembered much.

This idea is a little risky for some, and practically blasphemy for others. Batting Edwin Encarnacion, the essence of inconsistancy, third instead of Griffey, he of the 597 home runs. But if you look past first impressions, there are some interesting stats that support it. Check out these stats from Edwin's first two full years in the majors, 2006 and 2007 (2006 first/2007 second)

1. Normal average: .276/.289
2. Bases empty: .230/.258
3. With Runners on: .325/.325
4. RISP: .306/.360
5. Base Loaded: .467/.471

Thats a MAJOR difference when Edwin's in an RBI situation, its consistantly been that way over two seasons, and his stats improved the next year. Hitting well with RISP should be the #1 thing for a 3-hole hitter, and Edwin does it better than most. It also allows you to get the most out of a player. If these stats stay true, giving Edwin more RBI situations and less bases-empty ones would raise his average, maximizing his value for our team. Now look at Griffey's same stats over the past 3 seasons.

1. Normal average: .277/.252/.301
2. Bases empty: .276/.266/.302
3. With Runners on: .278/.235/.300
4. RISP: .244/.216/.263
5. Bases Loaded: .300/.333/.375

His average actually has gone DOWN at least 30 points with RISP every season, and only with the bases loaded does his average consistantly jump. Again, if these stats hold true, giving Griffey less RBI situations shouldn't hurt his average at all, and POSSIBLY help it. Baseball is all about getting the most out of what you have, and all the stats say that moving Edwin to the 3-hole and dropping Griffey down a bit would make a big improvement to the Reds.