Thoughts on the Batting Order

Mets.com reports that Jerry Manuel may elect to have Jose Reyes bat third this year, in which case his customary leadoff slot would be manned by Luis Castillo. Carlos Beltran, who might otherwise bat fifth, would bat second, and David Wright and Carlos Delgado would probably bat third and fourth, respectively.

When I first got wind of this, I didn't think it was much of an idea. But it's growing on me. One major component is Luis Castillo. He has plenty of experience leading off in his career, and truthfully, that's probably the only slot in the batting order where he could be of significant value.

You see, Luis usually has a high on-base percentage and a very low slugging percentage. As such, the lower he bats in the batting order, the lower his value. If he bats second or seventh, his lack of extra-base power and related comparative inability to drive runs in will be a hole in the batting order. If he bats leadoff, his extra-base power is not a weakness. His ability to get on base and steal bases will be just what the doctor ordered (if not quite on par what Jose Reyes would provide) for the one-hole.

Having Jose Reyes bat third instead of second might just be necessary because Manuel wants Beltran to bat second. The benefit of that would be that the two lesser hitters (Castillo and Reyes) would each be protected by the two greater threats (Beltran and Wright/Delgado).

If this does occur, presumably Ryan Church would bat sixth, Daniel Murphy/Fernando Tatis sixth, and Brian Schneider/Ramon Castro eighth.

Otherwise, you might see Luis Castillo at the bottom of the order with Murphy or Church batting second.

When you get down to it, however, it's all a guessing game. Not only don't you really know if Castillo will bat better with Reyes or Beltran behind him, you don't really know if Castillo will produce in 2009. Or Beltran. Or the rest of them.