As put forth so nicely here, David Wright is leading the National League in batting average and on-base percentage, which brings forth the question of why he is batting 5th in the batting order. Now, it been scientifically proven that the order of the batters makes a very slight difference, but still - the Mets lost two games in extra innings over the last 48 hours. Just one extra Met run by the ninth inning in either game would have them 2 games out of first right now instead 4.
While I haven't written about it, this has been an issue that has been on my mind for a while - essentially since Wright's batting average escalated and Carlos Delgado went on the Disabled List. I also think that it's quite a waste for the Mets to have two of the top three (the other is Carlos Beltran) batting averages (and two of the top five on-base percentages) in the National League, and not take advantage by batting those players back-to-back.
I asked somebody about this a few days ago, and he said, essentially, that Gary Sheffield's value goes up because he's being protected by Wright (as opposed to, say Fernando Tatis or Daniel Murphy). Now, I can hear that. But I still can't stomach Jerry Manuel's separating his two best hitters - by what has turned out to be an out machine in Gary Sheffield, no less.
The solution, perhaps, is to have Sheffield bat third. Then, Wright and Beltran could protect him in the fourth and fifth slots.
I just don't see how it can hurt to have your best hitters batting back-to-back.
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