OK, we now know two things for sure. Unless we sign Aoki or trade for Fowler, we don't have a legitimate leadoff option UNLESS Seitzer is somehow able to help B. J. recapture some portion of his former (long ago) self, and whoever Freeman's protection is won't be a HR threat. One of the things many posters here have mentioned in the past when talking about Heyward was touched on when the MLB Network rolled out its Top 10 SSs last night - if we truly ever hope to have Simmons reach his offensive ceiling, he needs to be put in one spot in the lineup and LEFT ALONE. Give him a defined role and ride out his struggles while he adjusts to that role or he eventually convinces you he can't handle it. Fredi toyed with it a little last year with B. J. as well (with success at times), and the fact that no one expects much out of this team this season provides you the perfect opportunity to let these two hit in important spots for an extended period of time. I'm skeptical that there are any metrics to explain whether Simmons' propensity to try to pull pitches in order to do more damage stems from hitting in front of the Pitcher all the time, but I do think his higher contact % and low K rate would play much better in the 2 hole IF he were put there and left there - there's definitely nowhere in our lineup that he's going to see more fastballs than in front of Freeman now. In the same vein, one thing (if there actually is anything) that I'd think would help Seitzer with B. J. is committing to him as Freeman's "protection" if he's not our leadoff guy. Make him understand that if we're going to have any modicum of success this season it's going to be because he finds some way to put the ball in play if people pitch around Freddie all season.
I don't think there's any doubt that Markakis would be the better candidate to hit at the top than Upton without any improvement, but with Gattis gone the ONLY person left to hit behind Freeman so he sees anything to hit all season is Nick if B. J. fails - at least he'll keep Pitchers honest and there would be two guys on base in front of Johnson or whoever hits fifth. So...
RF- Markakis
SS- Simmons
1B- Freeman
CF- Upton
3B- Johnson
2B- Callaspo
LF- ???
C- Bethancourt
I know I'm in the small minority around here, but I can't help but agree with those who think that lineup could be at least as successful as last year's with Simmons hitting like he did in 2013 and improvement from B. J. and Johnson if you had Markakis between the two of them and Aoki or Fowler at the top.
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Originally Posted by sturg33
