Billy Butler????

[dmattingly23]

I realize he is what he is for fantasy purposes. But he is the Royals best overall hitter with close to a .400 OBP.

Why the hell do they have him batting 5th. He's on base all the time and has nobody batting behind him. Wouldn't you want to switch him and Hosmer, so at least Hosmer has somebody to drive in. I realize he's slow and might clog the bases, but you have 4 guys batting in front of him that don't even have a .350 Obp.

Any Royals fans have a thought on this.

[bigh0rt]

I realize he is what he is for fantasy purposes. But he is the Royals best overall hitter with close to a .400 OBP.

Why the hell do they have him batting 5th. He's on base all the time and has nobody batting behind him. Wouldn't you want to switch him and Hosmer, so at least Hosmer has somebody to drive in. I realize he's slow and might clog the bases, but you have 4 guys batting in front of him that don't even have a .350 Obp.

Any Royals fans have a thought on this.

He's only recently been bumped to the 5 hole with Hosmer surging. He spent most of the season batting 4th behind Alex Gordon.

[dmattingly23]

I realize he is what he is for fantasy purposes. But he is the Royals best overall hitter with close to a .400 OBP.

Why the hell do they have him batting 5th. He's on base all the time and has nobody batting behind him. Wouldn't you want to switch him and Hosmer, so at least Hosmer has somebody to drive in. I realize he's slow and might clog the bases, but you have 4 guys batting in front of him that don't even have a .350 Obp.

Any Royals fans have a thought on this.

He's only recently been bumped to the 5 hole with Hosmer surging. He spent most of the season batting 4th behind Alex Gordon.

Yeah, it's been about 2 weeks now. But even then, he should have been in front of Gordon. He's an avg., OBp guy not a power bat. He's a perfect #3 hitter.

[bigh0rt]

I realize he is what he is for fantasy purposes. But he is the Royals best overall hitter with close to a .400 OBP.

Why the hell do they have him batting 5th. He's on base all the time and has nobody batting behind him. Wouldn't you want to switch him and Hosmer, so at least Hosmer has somebody to drive in. I realize he's slow and might clog the bases, but you have 4 guys batting in front of him that don't even have a .350 Obp.

Any Royals fans have a thought on this.

He's only recently been bumped to the 5 hole with Hosmer surging. He spent most of the season batting 4th behind Alex Gordon.

Yeah, it's been about 2 weeks now. But even then, he should have been in front of Gordon. He's an avg., OBp guy not a power bat. He's a perfect #3 hitter.

He wouldn't even be a bad #2 hitter, really, with his OBP and K/BB. As mentioned, he's a lunker on the bases, but if he's on base that frequently and making that much contact, you can look past it to a degree.

[bigken117]

Dusty Baker would hit him 8th

[J35J]

I hope he gets hot over the next 3-4 weeks and we can trade him while he's hot. He is brutal to watch...it's a 50-50 shot that he scores from 2nd on a single and that might be generous. He's strickly a DH, absolutely no defensive ability, and has no power. I'm glad he can hit a few doubles and get on base but that is absolutely the only thing he can do...I'd cringe if he hit 2nd as we'd have to hit a home run or string 2-3 hits together to even score him. His .400obp is about an equivalent to a .350obp from someone with half way decent speed because it'll take twice as many hits to knock him in. A guy with a .360-.370obp and solid speed would easily score more runs than he would even if he kept his .400obp for the whole year.

With all that said, on this team, he'd probably be best hitting 3rd but I'm not sure how many times I'd want to see him on 1st and Hosmer comes up and rips a double in the gap and Butler has to stop at 3rd.

[grizfan]

Why is he batting 5th? Ned Yost. The guy is terrible.

[dannahann]

At the very least flip him and Francoer. Frenchie notched most of his RBI in April but he's killed many a rally ever since Yost shuffled the lineup and moved him to the 4 hole. If you aren't going to move BB back to #3 at least bat him 4th to provide some protection to Hoss. Frenchie is a strong OF but that bat is awful. He should be well down the lineup behind both Butler and Betemit IMO.

[jpbusta]

At the very least flip him and Francoer. Frenchie notched most of his RBI in April but he's killed many a rally ever since Yost shuffled the lineup and moved him to the 4 hole. If you aren't going to move BB back to #3 at least bat him 4th to provide some protection to Hoss. Frenchie is a strong OF but that bat is awful. He should be well down the lineup behind both Butler and Betemit IMO.

And he looks all funky showing all his white teeth when he's at the plate.

[MaudDib]

I hope he gets hot over the next 3-4 weeks and we can trade him while he's hot. He is brutal to watch...it's a 50-50 shot that he scores from 2nd on a single and that might be generous. He's strickly a DH, absolutely no defensive ability, and has no power. I'm glad he can hit a few doubles and get on base but that is absolutely the only thing he can do...I'd cringe if he hit 2nd as we'd have to hit a home run or string 2-3 hits together to even score him. His .400obp is about an equivalent to a .350obp from someone with half way decent speed because it'll take twice as many hits to knock him in. A guy with a .360-.370obp and solid speed would easily score more runs than he would even if he kept his .400obp for the whole year.

With all that said, on this team, he'd probably be best hitting 3rd but I'm not sure how many times I'd want to see him on 1st and Hosmer comes up and rips a double in the gap and Butler has to stop at 3rd.

Do you really see the Royals trading Butler. I would be fine with it but I don't see Dayton Moore making that move. Too many people still think he has 30+ HR power. And then there is the question of what team would want him. Not a lot of available DH spots in the league.