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Jose Reyes will hit leadoff tonight, while Ryan Church will bat second and Luis Castillo will bat eighth.
…Update…5:16 pm…
Tonight’s lineup will be Reyes, Church, David Wright, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Angel Pagan, Brian Schneider, Castillo and Mike Pelfrey.
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this is good…At least Willie is realizing that Castillo sucks…I’m guessing this means that Pagan is behind Delgado…I’m assuming he is doing it to split up the lefties. However, I like Pagan in the two hole, and with him batting 6, it makes the 6-9 spots really soft.
I agree. I like Pagan in the 2 spot although maybe it makes sense to get Church used to the 2 spot because if and when Alout comes back he won’t be batting 2nd.
I don’t think Church will be batting second once Alou comes back anyway… Willie is just trying some things out – to get Reyes and Castillo going. Hopefully this will work…
Lets start off right. hopefully L-MILLZ AND LO duca get a nice ovation.
LETS GO METS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lo Duca yes, L-Millz didn’t do enough to earn it, for him indifference is sufficient
indifference?!?! have you heard the manny d joint yet?
Lo Duca will be booed due to steroids. I wouldn’t boo him. But I know others will.
What is this all about! I know Willie has said that Pagan will sit when Alou comes back, but I thought he was doing pretty good batting 2nd. I guess will we see if this works with Church batting second. Do we think he will have more patience at the plate, giving Reyes time to steal?
If this line-up works you do not want to have Pagan to be the guy because when Alou comes back it messes with the batting order again.
That works for me. Where’s Pagan going to be. I’m guessing sixth?
Reyes is back, that’s all I care about!
Bat the pitcher 8th and bat Castillo 9th. You essentially have a double leadoff situation after the 1st time at bat.
Plus the pitcher probably is more of a threat than Castillo.
lol
I can’t believe it. Willie makes a smart move? What’s next? He won’t bring Sosa into a tough spot?
This makes sense. Hopefully Reyes can get on base more. Giving Church a big hole on the right side.
Putting Pagan back down in the 6th spot also allows us to keep a run producer there that cannot be neutralized with a leftie on the mound.
I think that it is also a way that Willie can move Castillo down in the order without his place being taken in the line-up by a “fill in” player.
I’m a Willie fan, but was this move necessary? In my amateur opinion, the offense was not the problem this past weekend.
Have you watched any Met games this year…Castillo has hit maybe 5 balls out of the infield all year…plus with Castillo’s ability to walk in the 8th hole, the pitcher will not lead off many innings…Reyes will…Good Job Willie…thats the urgency I am looking for.
The offense as a whole has performed fairly well. However, notice the run production of the middle of the order….With Reyes and Castillo both around the mendoza lin, Wright/Beltran/Delgado don’t have many opportunities. This team would be so much better with even avg. performance from the 1-2 spots, probably enough to overcome some of the other shortcomings we have seen so far. Given how many close losses they have had, its not a stretch to say we’d be on the good side of .500…..A change needed to be made, and Reyes certainly wasn’t gonig anywhere. In addition, this splits up the left handed bats of Delgado and Church.
Castillo wasn’t a part of the offense in the past week. Church was.
Good move here by Willie, Church should see a lot of fastballs. (if Reyes gets on)
I asked for it when Castillo originally went out. I like the move a lot. The only issue is can Pagan really protect Delgado?
I would make a bit more sense once Alou comes back.
Either way I like the proactiveness of Willie on this one.
I am confident that this rest has given Reyes time to think about hitting more line drives and ground balls. Rather than swinging for the fences. The long-ball will come Jose.
Like this move mainly because there is a chance that Castillo will get one AB less per game.
how can anyone be against LMillz. Trading him was such a sellout move by Omar and Willie. Willie has a habit of picking on particular players and LMillz was one of them. I like church, but i’d rather milledge.
agreed
I think that in this situation, Church is much better suited for the 2 spot. Think of it this way; he may not be as fast as Milledge, but he’s more experienced, and works the count a lot better than Milledge would. Not to mention the ridiculous amount of XBH he hits. If Reyes gets on, and Church shoots one into the gap, that’s an early run right there due to Reyes’ speed. On top of that, Church is currently hitting for a higher average than Milledge.
Now, in the future I think you have a very legit argument, in that Milledge will almost definitely make more out of his career than Church. But I think this is a win now team, and Church fits perfectly at the moment.
Good post. Agreed. Church is more polished and better right now in situational spots, which is what you need to win in september and in the playoffs. Milledge will be good at somepoint, but Church helps more now. Adding Schneider on there i a huge bonus too. Obviously its a nice deal for the Nats also, because they get a potential building block type player for two guys who would have long since moved on by the time the Nats are competing. Milledge is also a ton more valuable in CF then a corner OF spot. If we had a CF opening instead of a RF opening, one out of Millegde and Gomex would have gone in the Johan deal, the other would be in center. Not a bad trade. Church is also a really good outfielder, which Milledge was not. David Wright has been really the only weak link on our ball club defensively so far.
why not? opens a hole for the lefty church when reyes is on plus a little more pop up top. castillo can get his infield hits then the pitcher can bunt him over allowing reyes some rbi chances.
While the top of the lineup looks better, a 7-8-9 of Schneider, Castillo, and the pitcher is going to be dreadful and likely result in a lot of pitch arounds to Pagan.
Honestly, I’d rather see him keep Pagan second and Church sixth. And obviously, put Castillo eighth.
True. I like having two speedy guys at the top of the order. If Reyes makes an out, you still have Pagan’s speed. I also think Church has some pop, and fits nicely in the 6 hole, although hitting behind Delgado isn’t ideal, since they’re both lefties.
This seems temporary to me. I would imagine Church going back to the 7 spot when Alou comes back. It makes sense to bat Pagan second, but in this case, batting Church there makes even more sense. He’s been pulling most of his hits so far this season, easy first-to-third for Reyes, especially with the hole that’s gonna b out there once Reyes gets on. The key here: Reyes needs to get on. If he keeps hitting .200, having Church in that spot is a moot point – might as well bat Pagan there…
This move is clearly a result from the meeting he had with Omar after the loss Sunday. Willie isn’t making this change on his own. He never changes anything.
way to be positive
Milledge wasn’t going to work out in New York. He was so highly touted in the organization that he started to buy into it.
Is he going to be a good player? Yes. Is he going to be an all-time great player. Very doubtful.
Milledge is a certerfielder. He is not a corner spot guy. The Mets have their CF. Plus, they have F-Mart in the wings. Now with the resurgance of Angel there really isn’t a spot for him on the team.
I wish him the best of luck on the Nationals. I think that he will perform well on a team that has no real pressure on it to win.
I wrote earlier how Pagan has replaced what Milledge could do this year.
I do disagree that the team is win now. The core is young (Wright, Reyes, and Beltran). I think we could have just as easily kept Milledge and Gomez to flank Beltran and then played F-Mart at 1st this season in AA/AAA to replace Delgado next year.
The money saved could have found us good pitchers off the FA market next year. We’d have a young and exciting team similar to the D-backs and Brewers, and they’d probably fare just as well as this years team.
All that said, I’m glad we have Santana and I hope he brings us a WS ring.
So true. The Milledge/Gomez/Mulvey/Humber/Guerra trades really defined this team as a win-now team. We could have just as easily held onto all our chips, been barely competitive this year, but exponentially improved as the years went by through homegrown talent and key free agent signings (Perez? Sabathia? Texeira).
I’m glad we have Santana too, but unfortunately if things don’t pan out like we want them to this year, there will be a lot of questions and blame being thrown around in the offseason.
castillo is a contact hitter and a switch hitter.
don’t forget that the games Castillo batted 2nd with reyes in the lineup, reyes was not getting on base and then reyes has been out since castillo has been back.
I think it is too early to make this move but let’s at least see how it works out before criticizing or applauding.
I still like reyes and castillo personally.
How is batting Ryan Church (lefty) in te 2 hole against a lefty starter (Perez) a good idea?
Personally I’d like to see Beltran in the 2 hole because if you’re talking about letting a guy see some more fastballs, he is the guy who needs them. Beltran somewhat reminds me of cerrano from major league in his inability to hit the breaking pitch. Whats wrong with a Reyes, Beltran, Wright, Delgado, Alou (when he is back), Church, Schnieder, Castillo, Pitcher lineup?
beltran has been the best mets rbi guy the last 2 years. he should bat 3 or 4. he actually hits the curve very well. one ab in the nlcs doesn’t change that. you don’t get to his level of production w/o hitting curve balls.
I find that funny because I’ve been to 4/6 home games so far this year (im leaving soon to go tonight) and it seems like everytime beltran strikes out (often in clutch situations) that little screen down the line looks something like “76 mph Curveball.”
Here are some fun stats since that fatal K in the NLCS (which i theorize has been the fall of beltran mentally).
In 2007:
With 2 outs, Beltran’s average was .214!
With 0 or 1 outs, it was .314!
With 2 outs and RISP, average was .224
Late and Close, average was .175.
*Late & Close are PA in the 7th or later with the batting team tied, ahead by one, or the tying run at least on deck.
what difference does it make, you know willie will go with “his guys/vets” and just move castillo back to 2 at the first 2 hit game
im indifferent on the move…castillo is NOT a .190 hitter, no MLB player is..eventually, he’ll get on track. And he’d be more effective if Reyes was actually getting on base, and/or stealing. One of his bunts or slap grounders would essentially put reyes to 3rd or 2nd (depending on the steal).
Church has been effetive down in the order, so why mess with a good thing?
The good side though, is that if church can continue his hittin and gettin on base, it gives wright and beltran more RBI opps, not to mention an early lead if again, reyes can actually get on base.
And, since castillo rarely strikes out, if he can get on base before the pithcer, we dont have to have the pitcher swing, a bunt can put an above average runner on 2nd with the top of the order coming up.
Let’s see what happens…
if this lineup with Chruch batting 2nd works out, when alou comes back you wont have 2 leftys batting 6-7-8, or wont be forced to bat Delgado 5th…
Also, Duaner, take your time, you dont need to be a Hero on Day 1 no matter how many morons boo you or think you should be able to bounce back from your multiple injuries like the snap of a finger….just please bounce back quick enough so we will no longer have to see Jorge Sosa’s flat slider grooved in with the game on the line.
weird…. similar thoughts, i like your thinking
i absolutely love this move! Luis Castillo is our 2nd base version of Rey Ordonez. I feel hes great with the glove but cant do anything anymore with his bat. It’s not a successful combination when your game revolves around putting the ball in play and relying on speed when you literally have to limp to first. Hes still got a great glove and moves well laterally even though he’s not what he used to be.
He’s not really the type of guy i would like to have hitting in front of Wright, that’s why I love this move. Now Church is going to see some better pitches and increase in his power numbers.
It’s great to see some initiative taken by Willie this early in the season. Hopefully we can keep this lineup steady for awhile to create some similarities each day for when the players come to play. Keep this lineup the same and throw Alou behind Delgado, and I really see this lineup rolling again. GREAT MOVE, TWO THUMBS UP TO WILLIE!
bigchart…absolutely….castillo is batting .290 right now, at least, if Reyes got on base more than me….
seriously a real #2 hitter has bad stats with no one on base, they are the kinda guys who sneak hits in to places unguarded and move runners from 1st to 3rd…
BTW….is Brian Schneider already the best catcher in Mets history?????? He is so much better than Lo Duca I dont even care about LMillz being gone now…WOW, so far this trade looks amazing for Omar.