2065.25 Some April Changes

[Krathan]

It’s April. That means my team is playing poorly. That also means, I’m trying to find some changes I can make in order to try to help them find their way.

I’ve talked about a couple of things I’ve done in other TN. I will try not to just repeat that information here.

I decided to put Nick Rivers on waivers. Multiple teams reached out about him and I ended up moving him on to Phoenix, basically shipping his contract off and keeping me from shifting him to the bullpen after his rough first three starts. The Rivers experiment didn’t cost me much. I hope he works out better for the Talons than he did for me. I’m sure he’ll end up pitching well when I have to face him if nothing else.

I sent José López back to AAA. 13 K’s in 10.1 innings-Good. 11 R in 10.1 innings-Bas. Lefties currently have an OPS of 1.585 against him. He can work on that in Richmond. I don’t need him working that stuff out in Charlotte.

I’m going to let Duke Silver get more starts behind the plate against RHP. I started the season with the idea that Silver and Francisco Ayala would platoon there. Offensively, that’s working out great. Defensively…not so much.
*Silver has a defensive efficiency of 1.031 and 0.9 framing runs in his first 10 games.
*Ayala has a defensive efficiency of .515 and -0.3 framing runs in his first 14 games. That’s AFTER a successful defense dev lab program!

One of them is playing catcher. The other is playing catch-up.

Ayala will now be platooning as the DH with Roberto Villalobos and only sparingly start at catcher.

A couple of related notes.
*Juan Sánchez is headed back to Richmond to get more playing time. He has only 5 AB in the first 23 games. He needs to be playing, and that’s not happening in Charlotte right now.
*Villalobos has some pretty noticeable platoon splits in his ratings. They haven’t really shown up in his stats, but pairing him with Ayala makes a lot of sense to me.

I’m making some lineup changes as well.

I’m getting a lot of guys on base-2nd in BA, 4th in OBP, 2nd in SLG, 3rd in hits, and 3rd in extra base hits. However, I’m not scoring enough runs. I’m 6th in that stat.

I like Brian Mitchell a lot. He’s slashing .312/.421/.487. He’s got 12 walks and 6 extra base hits. The problem is that he isn’t driving in runs. He has 6 RBI in 22 games as the cleanup hitter. Maybe that’s because he’s hitting .158 with runners in scoring position. Yes. You read that right. My cleanup hitter has a .158 average with men in scoring position. My solution-Mitchell is now my leadoff man. He’s not going to steal bases, but a guy with a .421 OBP seems like a good fit for the top of the order. If my guys who can hit with runners on come up with him on base that often, I’m bound to score a few more runs.

Jorge Trujillo is a guy who thrives in those situations, with a .346 AVG and .627 SLG with men in scoring position. (He also led the league in RBI which a whopping 129 a few seasons ago.) He’s moving closer to the middle of the lineup, 6th against RHP, behind Ayala, and 5th against LHP, behind Tommy Anderson.

Speaking of Anderson, he’s moving to the 4 hole. He is hitting .367 with men in scoring position.

The top of the lineup will be the same against everyone, with Mitchell leading off, Domingo Chávez second, Tony Villa third, and Anderson 4th. Ayala is in the 5 spot against RHP and as I previously mentioned, Trujillo is there against LHP.

Jacquot Natta is dropping to 8th. I think he’s going to get it going, but I’d rather him work it out in the 8 hole than in a higher spot in the order.

Silver, and his .400/.417/.514 slash line, are moving up to 6th against LHP and 7th against RHP.

Villalobos will be in the 7 spot against LHP.

José Bedreddin sits at the bottom of the lineup against RHP. Once a player who was in key spots in the lineup, Bedreddin’s platoon splits showed up in a big way last year to add emphasis to a general down year. He currently has an OPS of .804 against RHP in the 9 hole so I’m going to leave him there and hope he continues to thrive.

Dennis Armitage will be starting in CF and batting 9th against LHP. He had a very solid year for me last season and is coming off of a strong offensive sim. I know he’ll provide defensive value.

I also activated Francisco Ríos off of the IL, providing another solid defensive OF who can also hit pretty well at times.

I’m hoping these changes can help kickstart things as my pitching staff tries to settle in.

[BaseClogger]

As a sabermetrics guy can’t say I support making out the lineup based on a 24 game BA/RISP sample lol

[Krathan]

Honestly, it was more about the look in his eyes when I sat down across from him to talk about how he was feeling about his time in Charlotte so far. His eyes were bright for the whole conversation but turned dark as he mentioned that he felt like he wasn’t getting it done in the big moments yet.

And it was the way Whit (manager Walt Whitworth) mentioned that he say Mitchell tensing up at the plate in those moments. We agreed this is best for now. Maybe he gets back in the cleanup spot later. Maybe he’s so comfortable in the leadoff spot that he’s found a mew home. We’ll see.

[Krathan]

In all seriousness, I like to tinker. Especially when the team is struggling. That means I’m typically shifting things atoond every April. Since I can’t get into the clubhouse to actually see and feel what’s going on, or have actual conversations with guys, I want to do something to feel like I’m having an impact on the team as they try to work through the struggles.

As a teacher, I’m constantly monitoring and adjusting in the classroom. Sometimes my plan works great. Sometimes I need to make minor adjustments or to say something a slightly different way. Sometimes I have to go a completely different direction. How I approach these moments is based on what’s happening right then mixed with my knowledge of the kids and my years of experience.

Same thing here. It’s just kind of how my brain is wired. Small sample sizes are sometimes just opportunities to make a slight shift and see if you can find where a guy really fits, or what his true role really is.