I'm Sure It's Just a Big Coincidence

"Maybe (I'll) shuffle the lineup around. I don't know. ... We've gone over that a bunch of times. I don't see how moving one guy from third to fourth or fourth to fifth is going to help out."

--Ken Macha, May 27th

Since Macha removed his head from his ass and rearranged the line-up, our mighty Athletics have averaged over eight runs per games. Sure it's a small, VERY SMALL, sample size, but Jesus H, what the hell took so long? After four weeks, it was very obvious that having Kotsay-Kendall-Chavy at the top of the order wasn't working.

"So here's my suggested everyday line-up:

C. Kendall
CF Kotsay
DH Kielty
3B Chavez
SS Crosby
1B Johnson
LF Byrnes
RF Swisher
2B Ellis"

--Roman, May 27th

I guess Kenny just needed to be pointed in the right direction.

Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Oakland Athletics
June 1, 2005

C. Kendall
CF Kotsay
DH Kielty
3B Chavez
LF Byrnes
1B Johnson
SS Crosby
2B Ellis
RF Swisher

This is a huge step in the right direction. With a lefty on the mound, I can even support Macha's decisions to swap Crosby with Byrnes and Swisher with Ellis. I guess what I'm trying to say is that after 51 wrong line-ups, Macha finally got it right.

The real test will come tonight, when a righty's on the hill. Will Hatteberg return to the line-up? Will Byrnes exit? Probably. And I'll be okay with that. I know Macha's still trying to win ballgames. So while I'M already looking toward next year, I know Dopey's trying to save his ass. The only thing I ask is that he put our team in the best position possible to win. That means NOT batting Chavy third. Even against a righty. A quick glance at the splits reveals that Captain Confidence is only batting .223 against righties this season. That's worse than Scutaro, Ellis and Kendall. So while Chavy has a track record of pummeling righties, that hasn't been the case this year. Until he establishes that he's back on track, he should bat clean-up or lower.

As a matter of fact, he should probably bat clean-up or lower regardless of how he's swinging the bat. I've bought into the philosophy that a team's "best" hitter should bat third. So while Chavy has shown that he's a good hitter, he's also shown that he's a very streaky hitter. And I don't think that someone that goes into a month-long slump at least once a season can be classified as a team's best hitter. Good hitters are consistent. More than that, they're consistently good with spurts of greatness. Up to this point in his career, nothing suggests that Chavy is this type of hitter. Hopefully that will change one of these days.