This how I feel it should go down (and no, I’m not joking). The rationale is at the bottom.

1. Bay – LF
2. Sanchez – 2b
3. McLouth – CF
4. Doumit – C
5. Nady – RF
6. Bautista – 3b
7. Gomez – SS
8. Laroche – 1B
9. Gorzo – Mound

Bay has been given the green light this year, and even though he is no Juan Pierre, he may be the second fastest starter. He manages to get a decent amount of walks. He only drives himself in (note his rediculous HR-RBI statistics) so it won’t matter if anyone is on base in front of him or not. Seems like a credible lead-off guy to me.
Sanchez is a second baseman with even less power this year than previous years. He will still make decent contact though and once his average starts to rise he could become a very good singles hitter. Weren’t we supposed to be a smart, singles hitting, first-to-third kind of team anyway?
McLouth of course is everyone’s hero this year. He drives in runs! Imagine that! A player hitting third, with power, and the ability to drive in men in scoring position!
Doumit at cleanup. Switch hitter with power. Plus, things just seem more likely to go our way when he is in the lineup. (Witness last nights throwing error by Reyes when Doumit pinch-hit in the 9th)
Nady – Power and RBI’s. Typical 5th spot.
Bautista – Everyone wants to move struggling hitters down in the order. Bautista is a confidence guy. Move him up. What is the harm?
Gomez – I like his plate approach. He has that veteran mentality. He knows that his job is simply to keep the inning alive. A slap single here and there out of the 7 spot will suffice for now. (Other options being Luis “Where Am I?” Rivas, and Brian “I’m scared to death!” Bixler)
LaRoche – I like Adam. I think he will hit. But last night, with the bases loaded, I could almost feel him begging to be walked. He did not want to swing that bat. Batting 8th might allow him to get some walks and get on base to make him feel part of the team again.
Pitchers spot – Tonight played by Tommy Gorzelanny who has my favorite all-time name to say with an overly-exaggerated Pittsburgh accent.

First, I do realize it is a small sample size, and of course I realize that nobody would ever put Bay first in the order, but I still don’t think it is a bad idea at the present time.
As for your second point, normalizing Bay up to 30 plate appearances lacks any relevance. Whether he is driving in 9 in 18 plate appearances with RISP or 15 with 30 plate appearances, the percentage is still the same. He is being outdone, currently, by a large percentage by McLouth.

I agree that Bay will not continue down this path. I hope that he starts driving them in. At this point in time however, he isn’t.

what is a reasonable sample size for an individual or a team? Is 25 games a good sample size for a team. Dejan calls LaRoche’s 3 for 26 with RISP this season “mind-numbing”. What does that make Bay’s? The Pirates as a team are running at .246 with RISP.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not singling out Bay, but using his numbers as a pointer to the problem. His slugging average is rather empty and meaningless if it doesn’t help produce runs. It seems like if we have runners in scoring position…Nady or McLouth better be up…because no one else is doing the job. Bay’s and LaRoche’s failures are obvious, but until DK’s article this morning, no one in the press put any numbers to it. And by the way…who has McLouth been knocking in…since supposedly we’ve had 3 black holes (LaRoche, Bautista and SS) plus the pitcher hitting in front of him? Yet Bay is supposedly not getting the opportunities with McLouth and Sanchez hitting in front of him?

If sample size is a problem…what is a reasonable sample size for a starting pitcher? Is 5 starts reasonable? If it is, then Morris shouldn’t have been getting stuck with pitchforks any more than Gorzo…if the claims he is healthy are to be believed. Yet…Morris was pretty much run out of town…where Gorzo is getting all sorts of slack.

with ANYONE on base…Bay is 6 for 37 this season.

There was some type of water main break outside the stadium, so they are allowing extra time for fans to get there.

Lousy as they may be…LaRoche’s batting statistics with men on base are actually better than Bay’s (.174 vs .162)...with similar RBI totals. RISP is LaRoche .115 vs Bay .111.

OTOH…Nate is at .364 with men on….409 with runners in scoring position. Nady is .304 with men on….333 with men in scoring position.

do they actually CALL the ball, or just kind of run around the field on defense?

this game will be classic

did it die on you guys?

one of the NY announcers are blaming the delay for Perez’s failures

I hope now that gorzo has a 7 run lead, he can start to pitch better

how can gorzo go from such a great at bat against an aging slugger to not even being able to throw a strike

a walk to Figgy

You guys should start trying to be a little more positive. I think this will be a very productive outing for Gorzo, now that he does not have to worry about runs.

Could he be taking something off his pitches to regain his control? The MLB gamecast says he is topping out at 86 or so.

we’re due for a game like this. haven’t had a laugher in a while.

if matt morris were starting this game, instead of a “laugher” this would be a called a “one run deficit”

gorzo: effectively wild
game thread: effectively dead

then sit him down!

Do you think he has upped his trade value to the Mets after this series? Too bad they don’t have much to offer. Can there be a three-way trade that works?

Did you hear the Mets announcer? “Even Brian Bixler is getting hits!”

did anyone doubt what would happen there?

sucks!

Nice little 1-2-3 inning for JVB

nice to win an easy one. i hope gorzo is ok…