{"id":2167,"date":"2015-03-01T10:07:47","date_gmt":"2015-03-01T16:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/?p=2167"},"modified":"2015-04-20T19:19:59","modified_gmt":"2015-04-21T01:19:59","slug":"top-of-the-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/?p=2167","title":{"rendered":"Top of the Order"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>Travis d&#8217;Arnaud at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Mets?src=hash\">#Mets<\/a> camp: <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/K7NnCOJtXX\">pic.twitter.com\/K7NnCOJtXX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Adam Rubin (@AdamRubinESPN) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamRubinESPN\/status\/571429942187204609\">February 27, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>So there&#8217;s Travis d&#8217;Arnaud, aka &#8220;Shoeless Aud,&#8221; wearing his new No. 7 jersey. Could you also see him in a new lineup position?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.beta.mbtn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/7.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-89\" src=\"https:\/\/www.beta.mbtn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/7.gif\" alt=\"7\" width=\"27\" height=\"48\" \/><\/a>Let me begin by saying\u00a0I&#8217;m generally if not wildly optimistic for the Mets chances this year. I like the additions of Cuddyer and Mayberry. I believe that David Wright could still rebound, and I think Wilmer Flores is a bold choice in a year where offense is going to be hard to find. I think a solid starting staff and bullpen might\u00a0be constructed just from what *doesn&#8217;t* make the opening-day roster this year. That&#8217;s all very encouraging.<\/p>\n<p>Where\u00a0I&#8217;m concerned is that they don&#8217;t really have an ideal leadoff hitter, and I worry especially that they&#8217;ll try to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nj.com\/mets\/index.ssf\/2015\/03\/why_mets_think_juan_lagares_has_some_similarity_to.html#incart_river\" target=\"_blank\">shoehorn Juan Lagares<\/a> into that role. It&#8217;s not that I don&#8217;t believe Lagares could ever become a leadoff guy (though I have doubts), it&#8217;s that given his low walk rates and seeming luck on balls-in-play (he BABIPped at 340 vs. a league average of 300) I&#8217;d prefer he demonstrate whatever\u00a0nascent leadoff skills he possesses as a\u00a07th or 8th place hitter and let someone generally more qualified garner the extra trips and run-building opportunities that come with the role.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not arguing that Travis d&#8217;Arnaud\u00a0should be a leadoff hitter either, but I might be tempted to try him there sooner than I would Lagares. His walk rate is better and BABIP ought to improve, and his superior extra-base power could get us some early leads in road games, which I&#8217;d prefer over whatever\u00a0advantage you might realize from Lagares&#8217; stolen bases. Actually the club\u00a0would seem to favor Curtis Granderson (or let&#8217;s face it, Kirk Nieuwenhuis) leading off, but\u00a0I can see the argument for getting Grandy&#8217;s\u00a0bat more in the mix off all those middle-of-the-order righties &#8211; yet another consequence of the Mets not having gathered in a lefthanded hitting shortstop over the offseason.<\/p>\n<p>Who leads off for your 2015 Mets?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Travis d&#8217;Arnaud at #Mets camp: pic.twitter.com\/K7NnCOJtXX \u2014 Adam Rubin (@AdamRubinESPN) February 27, 2015 So there&#8217;s Travis d&#8217;Arnaud, aka &#8220;Shoeless Aud,&#8221; wearing his new No. 7 jersey. Could you also see him in a new lineup position? Let me begin by saying\u00a0I&#8217;m generally if not wildly optimistic for the Mets chances this year. I like the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/?p=2167\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Top of the Order&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[623,678,470,612],"class_list":["post-2167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-curtis-granderson","tag-juan-lagares","tag-kirk-nieuwenhuis","tag-travis-darnaud"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2167"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2222,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167\/revisions\/2222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}