Utley hitting Second?

[jebnasty]

against right handed pitching:

rollins
utley
abreau
howard
burrell

againts left handed pitching

rollins
utley
abreau
burrell
howard

[bAsKeTcAsE86]

To quote myself from before...

Adding to what I wrote in my last post:

Abreu has had 30+ steals in 4 of the last 5 seasons, 100+ walks 7 straight seasons and an OBP of .400 or better each of the last four seasons.

To me, he seems perfectly suited to the two spot.

Why is he against batting in what seems to be his natural place in the lineup? Stupid pampered athletes who don't understand their own strengths and weaknesses...I would be fine with Abreu in the three hole if he consistently had the power he teased us with in the HR derby last year, but he doesn't...As stated above, he does bring the OBP and SB numbers that you want from a top of the lineup guy though.

I understand the lefty argument, but their top three hitters are lefties...at some point, you need to stick your top three hitters where they can do the most damage. It's not worth putting Burrell in between them, because he strikes out way too much.

[643dp]

I'm not sure how I feel about him being in the 2 hole...I was expecting 100+ RBIs from him this year. I have enough speed and run production in my lineup already...Why not bat Abreu second, Utley third, and Howard cleanup? That sounds like a good compromise to me. It actually seems like it would make the most sense for the Phillies, because Abreu is better at getting on base than Utley.

Like i said before you dont want three lefties hitting in a row. Why doesnt abreu hit second? Because he would have an absolute hissy fit.

True. He's a big baby who refused to bat leadoff for a time.

Absolutely 100% false.

He has stated a preference for hitting down in the line-up, and he did hit lead-off when asked to do so- even though it really is a waste of his skills. He is more of a team player than some fans give him credit for. Ask his teammates, and they'll tell you he's a leader and a good teammate. He's also never been asked to hit second, so any presumed reaction to that is just someone making up stuff.

But no, Manuel will never bat the three lefties back to back to back unless they're facing a right-hander on a team with no lefties in the pen.

[fishbelly]

I'm from Philly, and I suspect Manuel put Utley in the two-hole because he rested Rowand and colorado was starting a RHP- don't get too used to seeing Chase in the two-hole, although i would love if that was true.

[hoya1982]

I'm from Philly, and I suspect Manuel put Utley in the two-hole because he rested Rowand and colorado was starting a RHP- don't get too used to seeing Chase in the two-hole, although i would love if that was true.

He has been there for 4 days now, don't think it is temporary.

[kugino]

utley's been terrific since moving to the 2 spot. all of you complaining about decreased production from utley at the 2 spot - that's where utley spent most of his time last year and look what numbers he put up...and that was with p/t platooning with polanco. he'll be fine.

i personally think manuel is an awful manager. he has an idea of what he wants to do and is so slow to change when it's not working...took him half the season last year to figure out that utley should be at 2B. and i have no idea why he messed with utley in the batting order this year when batting second worked so well last year. manuel needs to go.

(utley owner here, if you haven't guessed)

[bAsKeTcAsE86]

Yeah, he is a pretty awful manager. As he's shown in Philly and back when he was with Cleveland, he knows how to take a great offensive lineup and get the least production possible out of it. Is he really any better than Bowa?

[bAsKeTcAsE86]

Utley just got the day off today? I noticed he wasn't in the lineup...