How long can Guerrero bat fourth?

This is just the latest question no one in the Angels organization is prepared to answer:

How long can they keep Vlad Guerrero batting cleanup?

How long do you go with what you remember about a ballplayer, as opposed to what reality says he is now? How long do you wait for power to return when it might be gone permanently?

Manager Mike Scisocia has been encouraged by the way his one-time franchise player had been swinging the bat until he went 0 for 5 and left his usual number of men on base Sunday night in the 5-3 loss to the Dodgers. Guerrero has been getting his hits, but they've all been singles.

Just what the Angels need, huh? Yet another singles hitter. Seriously, Guerrero has 125 at-bats now and has six extra-base hits. Six! And only one of the six was a home run.

That's not a cleanup hitter. It is a seventh or eighth hitter.

The problem is they're paying Vlad cleanup money and he is producing mop-up stats. So what do you do?

You know what the Angels will do. They'll keep waiting and waiting. Scioscia is convinced Guerrero is pressing. He said as much to me on the record last week. I've watched him during batting practice, and he can still crush balls, sending them well over the fence in all directions.

But then the games begin, and Vlad overswings more than ever before, getting jammed inside and lunging at balls he can't reach outside. He can still make contact, but it is usually soft contact.

Yes, he is still recovering from the injury to his pectoral muscle. Is that part of the problem? Maybe. Or is it simply that the right fielder who had been the team's best player for so long is slowly losing his skills? Has age caught up to him, as it does to all of us at some point?

Whatever the reason, the truth is the Angels can't afford to leave him in the No. 4 hole if he can no longer drive the ball. I don't see them pulling him from the lineup under any circumstances. But there is no shame in dropping him a couple of spots. There are no long-range ramifications to worry about here. The guy's contract runs out after this season.

Bat Torii Hunter fourth and Juan Rivera fifth, putting Guerrero sixth. Maybe it will take some of the pressure off, allowing him to relax and regain his form. In the meantime, you won't be losing much, because he's not driving in many runs anyway.

The Angels should make the move immediately. Not just for the sake of Guerrero.

But for the sake of an already flawed team still battling to win its division.

-- Steve Bisheff    

Comments

[aztronut]

And who hits third? Abreu? I don't think so. Napoli? Morales? WTF?

Hunter should continue to hit third, he's the best hitter on the team right now and that's where he belongs. Hit Rivera fourth, Morales fifth, Napoli sixth and Vlad seventh. He can move back up when he starts driving the ball and he can move up a spot when Mathis plays.

Which brings up another issue, Mathis plays way, way too much for a .198 hitter, even if he is a better defensive catcher than Napoli. He's not that much better and doesn't deserve the amount of playing time he's gotten this year. Mathis, like Vlad, is strictly a singles hitter so far this year. Napoli's bat is way more valuable than Mathis' mitt.

[shawn]

He will be in the 4th hole all season. MS has much respect for what Vlad has done for this team and will stick with him in the 4th spot.

I think he has declined a lot in the last two seasons, and will only be brought back next season for marketing reasons.

[Alex]

I wouldn't blame Erick Aybar or Macier Izturis for wanting to re-negotiate their contracts when they see the 15 Million a YEAR results that Vlad produces. At this point, both Aybar and Izturis are bigger threats at the plate than Guerrero!

Scisocia has a little to do with it too. His belief in Guerrero is unconditional till the very end it seems.
Then back to the finale of the Freeway Series, Scisocia gives the green light to Abreu with a 2-0 count and the bases loaded with nobody out facing Kershaw who was having control issues, Abreu swings and helps Kershaw out of the jam by hitting into a 1-2-3 double play killing a potentially big inning. Angels show nothing for their bases loaded nobody out efforts. I thought in a situation like that you make the pitcher throw a strike and maybe even another one putting the pressure on the pitcher to throw three strikes or force in a run. Scisocia should learn from the patient Red Sox batters who have parlayed that kind of stragegy into wins over the Angels in recent years.

Alex
Alex

[Tom S]

Notes from Sunday's game:
1. Vladdy is getting worse. Other teams are laffing at him. Why would you still hit him fourth.
2. Abreu -our most discilplined hitter-swings at 2-0 pitch with the bases loaded. Is he channelling Vladdy?
3. Bench or trade Mathis. He should not be splitting time with Napoli-he's now strickly a back up and trade bait.
4. How do you not pinch hit for Aybar with the bases loaded. Again, Aybar will never be a prime time player.
5. Platoon Aybar and Issy at short and let Rodriquez have a shot at second full time.

[Tom S]

How do you let Lackey start the 7th after he already looged 100 pitches plus? Soc. has to manage better than that.

[Brian]

One more thing about Vlad. While he was on the DL the Angels had a great offense. Weren't they scoring six to ten runs a game in a lot of games? The blowpen still found ways to blow some of those games but the offense was good. Why is Scioscia always in a hurry to fix something that isn't broken? The Angels were better when Vlad, Santana and Lackey were all on the DL. Too bad the blowpen stunk up those games.

[Brian C.]

Some of the statements on this topic are laughable. Vlad is playing his final year with the Angels....period. He won't be brought back for marketing reasons. His marketability is limited anyway. He doesn't speak english and doesn't make himself available to the press for interviews. Those things I couldn't care less about. He was an incredible hitter for most of his career but it now looks like he's reached that point where the skills start to diminish and the Angels aren't going to bring back a guy whose best years now seem behind him. Scioscia sticking with him for what he's done in the past is the main reason this team has struggled so much this year. He likes batting Izturis third at times because of what he's done in the past when he's hit well. He stays with his little ball style because of what has happened in the past.....2002. That's what's wrong with this organization, they live in the past and don't want to change and that's why they have continued to get booted out early in the playoffs in the last six years.