Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

Whose a better #2 hitter, Brian Roberts or Mark Kotsay? Kotsay has a better OBP and not too many gbA, but Roberts has no gbA and a decent OBP. I'm in shea if that makes any difference...right now my lineup goes ichiro, roberts, kotsay, ortiz; but i could move kotsay up to 2 and get a better #3 hitter if necessary.

all lefty 1-4?

if it were me

ichiro
(a righthanded bat like loretta, doubles and OBP)
ortiz
(a righthanded hitter with pop & clutch >=0)

It kinda also depens upon who else is in the lineup.

If the middle to bottom of your lineup is weak, I'd leave Roberts in the 2 hole,vs. RH's only. I'd bat him near the bottom vs. LH's though.

If your lineup is fine near the mid-bottom, I'd go with Kotsay in the 2 hole, especially vs. LH's.

Kotsay is ideal in the #2 spot vs. LHP (36.2 Hits, 50.2 OB, 42.6 TB's and only 6 DP's, decent speed but no * rating).

Roberts would be better suited than Kotsay in the #2 hole vs RHP, although I personally prefer some one with a higher OBP than his (only 40 chances). This is where Carroll's value lies (50.8 chances). In fact with Carroll's * rating, you could bat him #1 and move Ichiro down to #2 (Ichiro has less OB chances vs RHP than Carroll, but better hit chances and total bases so he can drive Carroll around the bases).

Whether or not Carrol's 3 rating vs. Robert's 2 rating on defense is worth the trade off in OBP is another matter however. The clincher for me is that I usually like to limit the number of switch hitters in my line-up, and there are so many better switch hitters than Roberts that I've yet to use him in '05.

Roberts a good #2 vs rhp's. He will put up a decent to good OBP vs rhp's and lacks the GBA, but he's almost a platoon player. He's better suited for a park that invites opponents to throw rhp's, unlike Shea. I platoon him with Blum in parks like Wrigley.

[url]http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/2005/team/team_other.html?user_id=45781&stats=actual[/url]

any more advice for my shea team? the other division players are in shea, skydome, and wrigley.