Lyle Overbay and Travis Snider

Anatomize · Post #1 » by **Anatomize** » Sat May 8, 2010 3:43 am

Overbay is regularly batting in the 5th spot despite struggling mightily.

Snider has been heating up lately, not including his 3/5 performance today out of the 9th spot. In May, Snider has 1 homerun, 4 extra base hits in 18 at bats, and matching his entire extra base hit totals from April. Snider has raised his OPS to .752 and OBP to .314. Considering his recent play and power upside, do you think Cito will shift him with Overbay in the batting order? I'm getting tired of seeing our 5th position not produce.

Post #2 » by **Schad** » Sat May 8, 2010 3:48 am

Anatomize wrote:Overbay is regularly batting in the 5th spot despite struggling mightily.

Snider has been heating up lately, not including his 3/5 performance today out of the 9th spot. in May, Snider has 1 homerun, 4 extra base hits in 18 at bats, and matching his entire extra base hit totals from April. Snider has raised his OPS to .752 and OBP to .314. Considering his recent play and power upside, do you think Cito will shift him with Overbay in the batting order? I'm getting tired of seeing our 5th position not produce.

He should be hitting higher regardless...the 'pressure' of hitting in the top-7 is nothing compared to the chance for pitchers to pitch around him. Lewis hitting well ameliorates that somewhat, but Snider should really be in the sixth or seventh spot; it'd be the sixth spot if our bargain basement pickups didn't think that they were Babe **** Ruth.

Anatomize · Post #3 » by **Anatomize** » Sat May 8, 2010 3:53 am

I really hope we don't start exchanging Encarnacion's at bats with Lewis, we haven't had speed at the top of the lineup in over a decade, sadly, Reed Johnson was the closest thing to a runner we even had near the top of the order after Shannon Stewart. The fact we finally have a guy with some wheels should help produce more runs if he plays everyday. A few of Snider's hits today would have resulted in RBIs as well if he wasn't batting after scrubs (I'll give John Buck his props tonight).

J-Roc · Post #4 » by **J-Roc** » Sat May 8, 2010 3:57 am

Look for Cito to give Snider the 9th spot all season. Like a training spot in the order. The downs, the ups and eventually the downs, and over and over. Snider can spend the season worrying about his batting, instead of wondering if there will be any consequences.

Michael Bradley · Post #5 » by **Michael Bradley** » Sat May 8, 2010 1:57 pm

Well, the good news is Snider always bats ahead of McDonald or Molina, which is good, but I always felt him batting 9th with Gaston was a no-win situation. If Snider does bad, then Cito will keep him in the 9th spot. If Snider does well, then Cito will keep him in the 9th spot because he does not want to ruin his rhythm (or whatever justification Cito will use).

I say just release Overbay (he's not tradeable and won't be offered arby at the end of the year.....cut your losses and move on) and move Snider up in the lineup. Hopefully it will happen sooner than later. Unfortunately John Buck's HR power and Jose Bautista's incriminating pictures might keep status quo for now.

I do see Snider being moved up soon though, especially if he keeps hitting. Either way, he was in the lineup against Buerlhe last night so that in itself is a good sign.

kelso · Post #6 » by **kelso** » Sun May 9, 2010 8:39 pm

Overbay is a plug. His numbers are brutal and have been for 2+ years. ANYONE else at 1st base is an instant improvement from a hitting perspective- even John McDonald has better numbers at the plate.

For the love of God, please AA do something with this guy already.

hyper316 · Post #7 » by **hyper316** » Sat May 15, 2010 8:05 pm

man i can't stand 0ferbay, he must be one of the worst starting 1st baseman in the major league. can someone dig up some stat to compare all the 1st basemen

Post #8 » by **Schad** » Sat May 15, 2010 8:12 pm

hyper316 wrote:man i can't stand 0ferbay, he must be one of the worst starting 1st baseman in the major league. can someone dig up some stat to compare all the 1st basemen

You could, it isn't difficult to do. But without looking it up: if you're looking at this year only, yes, he has some of the worst stats of any starting 1B, though I would guess that the Atkins/Hughes tandem in Baltimore is doing even worse. If you're looking at productivity over the last few years (ie., where he's likely to be by the end of the season) he isn't even close.

Post #9 » by **OldNo7** » Sat May 15, 2010 8:20 pm

The OP is tired of Overbay hitting 5th and I am tired of having this discussion.

SargentBargs101 · Post #10 » by **SargentBargs101** » Sat May 15, 2010 9:34 pm

i think it will take a couple injuries [which i don't hope for] for snider to be moved up.

Ramako · Post #11 » by **Ramako** » Sat May 15, 2010 10:09 pm

OldNo7 wrote:The OP is tired of Overbay hitting 5th and I am tired of having this discussion.

Why did you post in the thread then? :confused: