Monday, March 10, 2008

Brewers to bat Kendall 9th and pitchers 8th

According to this article, Brewers manager Ned Yost is planning to bat catcher Jason Kendall 9th and his pitchers 8th in his everyday lineup. This goes against conventional wisdom, but it has the potential to be a good move. Kendall has no power at all, but if he can recover some of the one-base skills that he used to have back in the day, then this gives the Brewers #2 and #3 hitters a chance to have more people on base when they're up without having to sacrifice at-bats to do this. (You might recall that Tony LaRussa of the Cardinals has played with such a lineup modification a few times in the past.) Of course, based on the way Kendall "hit" last year, he shouldn't even be in the Major Leagues (let alone playing every day).

I hope Yost keeps this up the whole year because it's nice to see some line-up novelty for a change instead of the usual resistance.

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