Move Andruw to #5 or #6?

[cklennon]

I've been thinking about this for some time and wanted to see if there's any agreement around here. It seems to me that it's relatively common to move guys down in the order when they're struggling, let them succeed in situations with less pressure and then parlay that into success in high-pressure sitations. (See: Carlos Delgado)

Given that Andruw Jones looks like he's totally out of whack, is it so unreasonable to ask him to move down a few spots? The guy is hitting under .230 in the cleanup spot, and with our 1-2-3 hitters getting on base like they are, our 4th guy shoud have upwards of 30 RBIs.

Here are his miserable stats:

.176 with runners on base (9/51)
.200 with RISP (7/35, 16 RBIs)
.000 with a Runner on 2nd (0/8, 5K) ... the frustration of not getting guys over from 2nd has a lot to do with Andruw in my opinion

The only bright spot I can see is that he's 2/5 with 5 RBIs with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs. At least he's getting those sac fly's :rolleyes:

Francoeur is simply picking up Andruw's RBIs in the 5th (or 6th) spot. He's got 7 more and he's been batting mostly 2 spots behind him, sometimes one. If Andruw's numbers were anything like Francoeur's (or if Francoeur were batting 4th...), he'd have at least 40 RBIs.

[GTBraves's roomate]

I totally agree. Anduw is underperforming at his spot right now and the best thing for the team would be to move him down a couple of spots. Francoeur has been excellent at driving in runs (especially with 2 out) and McCann has also done a good job. Andruw has gone to the plate way too pull happy and has his at bats have been miserable at times. He needs to be dropped a few and Pendleton needs to work with him a little. But I feel changes probably won't be made for another few weeks.

[JCStone7]

Andruw will bounce back! He is struggling, a little to much... once he gets hot and goes on one of his patented "jump on my shoulders, cuz I'm going off" streaks all of this will go by the wayside... as long as the Braves put W's on the board

[oyhstah crachah]

I think that's a really good idea. Frenchy is playing much better right now, and McCann should be batting from 3-5 (although obviously not 3 in this case because of Chipper) regardless of how good a season Andruw is having. It might piss Druw off, especially with his contract up, but because he's not going to be here much longer anyway, there isn't really a reason for us to dote on him if it hurts the team...

[cklennon]

I do think he'll bounce back but as long as he's hitting like this he's detrimental to the team in the 4 spot. Look at the Mets, they just moved Delgado down...you know he's gonna hit, but let him hit in a situation where he's not expected to do as much and then he'll come around. Until he does, someone who is going to produce needs to be there.

I don't think there's any way Cox will do this unless Andruw's cold streak continues for another week or two or he drops below .200, but I wish he would...

[GrandMasterB]

Andruw is the type of player that, at any moment, could go on a tear. He's such a streaky hitter. When he's at his best, he can carry a team for weeks. At his worst, he looks like he couldn't even make Charlie Brown's team.

Bobby is loyal to his players, sometimes a little too much. He knows how streaky Andruw can be, so I don't see him being moved down for a while. If he's still struggling when June comes, then maybe he'll be moved down.

[McCarroll21]

Remember 2005? The season he should have won the MVP? Want to know what he did in April that season?

AVG - .239
OBP - .303
SLG - .409
OPS - .712

3 home runs, 12 RBIs.

Is it frustrating as hell? You bet it is. But Andruw has done this before and went on to have a good year. His career year of 2005 started off worse than this one has.

[JCStone7]

Remember 2005? The season he should have won the MVP? Want to know what he did in April that season?

AVG - .239
OBP - .303
SLG - .409
OPS - .712

3 home runs, 12 RBIs.

Is it frustrating as hell? You bet it is. But Andruw has done this before and went on to have a good year. His career year of 2005 started off worse than this one has.

:clap:

[cwg7v]

I would like to see Andruw stop trying to pull everything. He rarely gets pitches that he can pull with any sort of power, and I can't help but believe that sooner or later teams are going to start using the Barry Bonds shift on Andruw. Besides trying to go the other way with outside pitches has gotten a lot of guys out of slumps in the past.

[McCarroll21]

I agree. He needs to start using all fields again. If he'd go into right center more often, he'd not only find more hits but he'd get more pitches to hit.

Look at what it's done to Jeff. He's going to right field now and now he's getting pitches to handle inside instead of everything being away, away, away.

I wouldn't be opposed to dropping him to 6th in the lineup, so long as it wasn't something that was a permanent move. He's our clean up hitter, he just needs to find his swing and then move back up.

My post earlier in this thread was just to say that all is not lost on his season with this bad start. Hopefully he starts heating up soon.

[cklennon]

Obviously the day I post this he goes 2 for 3 with 2 huge RBIs, and a huge hit to the gap in right-center...hopefully this gets him back on track!

[vnodnarb]

lets hope so, the hit to right center is a very good sign, he is about due to go on a hot streak

[McCarroll21]

At least you can come back and eat crow, even though I think everyone knows that just because he had a good night doesn't mean he's back. It was a great sign to see him go to RF though.

I would have been pleased with a lineout to RF to be honest -- obviously not as happy as the hit to win it, but it's just great to see him going that way.