Why Trout is batting second

[AZMike]

It's too bad this team couldn't have picked up a player with numbers like this:

 

.324 / .405 / .649

 

 

to bat second

[Blarg]

A guy like that should be batter 3rd or 4th. We are talking about leadoff and batting 2nd.

[jshep]

So far this year Trout has not been a competent leadoff hitter himself, hitting .245 AVG with a .288 OBP.

 

.269 and .321 OBP actually.

 

So even a struggling Trout is better at getting on base than Erick Aybar.

[AZMike]

A guy like that should be batter 3rd or 4th. We are talking about leadoff and batting 2nd.

Sounds like the Yankees need to fire Girardi then 

[Docwaukee]

I think this is being rather generous about the effects of Trout batting 2nd.

 

The guys batting ahead and behind of Hamilton haven't changed at all(and it's really iffy if even those guys have a noticeable impact on Hamilton).

 

Hamilton has faced worse pitchers than he was before though, and he's also pretty good at baseball when he's going good.

 

Meanwhile, Trout has yet to bat in a runner besides himself since moving to the 2 hole, because Angels leadoff hitters are 1 for 15 since the move(that one hit being Shuck's double from last night), and Aybar's career .320 OBP isn't going to change that.

 

So basically this just gets a rotation of guys with lackluster or worse base tendencies more ABs instead of the best leadoff hitter in the game, just for the sake of grouping the big names together. (And honestly, if you absolutely feel like you NEED to group them together, move someone up, not Trout out of the leadoff spot)

 

Yay?

I'd have no problem with Hamilton moving up to 2nd.  I do think that guys who are a threat to steal do allow guys further down to see more fastballs.  I don't like Aybar in the leadoff spot very much, but I like him there better than the two spot.  I like that it negates the 'bunt trout over' scenario. 

 

The leadoff hitter got about 15 more pa than the #2 hitter last year.  If Trout was moving from first to fifth and potentially getting 60 less PA for the season, then I would have more issue with it.  It's not a huge deal as the positives and negatives are about a wash from my view. 

[Halos of Anaheim]

Considering he has 23 career HRs and a career .367 slugging I'd say he's correct

 

 

Yes I did. He hit 9 last year, besides that he's averaged about 3 a season.

Yikes. I thought you were talking about Justin Upton. Inb4 ''racist''.

[AZMike]

Yikes. I thought you were talking about Justin Upton. Inb4 ''racist''.

Upton has more homers than Bourjos, Trout, Pujols and Hamilton combined. 

 

Kevin Towers got owned this offseason.