Having Your Cake and Eating It Too: Where to Bat Reyes

Jerry Manuel made a very casual comment the other day that he was going to try changing things in the order to not only give Castillo more confidence but also to make Reyes a better player, because really, you are only the leadoff batter once a game. If only there was a way for Reyes to bat leadoff, and yet still feel like he is batting second sometimes. Well there is a way, its sometimes controversial, but if we are trying new things in Spring, why not try this. Let's bat the pitcher 8th and have Murphy or Castillo bat ninth. Now, in certain situations, Reyes is like the number 2 hitter and he is still a table setter. So a proposed line up could look like this: 1. Reyes 2. Castillo/Murphy 3. Wright 4. Beltran 5. Delgado 6. Church 7. Schnieder 8. Pitcher 9. Castillo/Murphy(As a note, I would prefer Murphy second, and Castillo 9th only because I think Castillo would be better hitting in front of Reyes because he is more experienced). The downside of a lineup li...