Was anyone surprised at all to see Brazelton's "performance" today? Six walks...he was so lucky to get away with only three runs. Unless he's going to strikeout eight then that's a major recipe for disaster. Can we please stop this home/road crap with him? It was a complete outlier skewed to look worse than it was by the raw numbers. He isn't a good pitcher on the road but that's because so far in his career he has never been a good pitcher; unless he becomes one then he isn't going to be good at home either.
I'm not throwing him under the bus, it's only the second start of the season, just trying to make a couple points there. He needs at least five starts before we can really begin to evaluate him and even that isn't much of a sample size to work with.
Attention so-called genius manager: Lugo is NOT a cleanup hitter and Green/Gonzalez are NOT #2 hitters. Yes, it has been proven that over the course of a season batting order really doesn't affect run scoring by a whole lot (I believe the total effect is around 20 extra runs if you set up the lineup in the best possible fashion) but it can mean an extra run here and there and you never know when that single extra run will make the difference in a game.
More lineup junk: Phelps batting 7th? The guy may turn out to be your second best on-base threat this season and you're putting him in front of GIDP/.300 OBP Hall?
Is it really that difficult to make a lineup that puts everyone in their optimal position? Personally I like the idea of Lugo leading off and Crawford batting second since at this point they have similar OBPs but Crawford has more power. I know Lou won't do it and he likes his lefty/righty stuff so I'll just go with Crawford in the leadoff spot.
Crawford
Lugo
Huff
Phelps
Lee
Cantu
Gonzalez/Green
Hall
Gathright
There, that isn't so hard. A lineup that fits into Lou's preferences while also putting the players in positions they're suited for. I'd prefer Cantu batting directly behind Phelps but having him 6th is fine.
I've been impressed by Gathright so far. He is tracking flies much better than last year and he has shown significantly more arm strength than I thought he had. His hitting looks much better than it did last season too. He's being patient and not trying to just slap the ball somewhere for a hit. He has really driven the ball several times, I bet he could hit the ball over the fence a couple times if he stays with this approach. Gathright the slap-hitter is an alright backup outfielder. Gathright the patient hitter with doubles (triples for him) power is a perfectly adequate fill-in for Rocco.