Sports

SHAKE IT UP, BOBBY ; VALENTINE UNVEILS REVISED LINEUP FOR OPENER VS. BRAVES

ATLANTA – With his chair leaning against the back wall in the road manager’s office, Bobby Valentine discussed the forecast last night at The Ted. First, Valentine spoke about the rain outside, which was delaying Opening Day, and, second, his lineup . . . his new-look lineup.

Well, at least the lineup he planned to use on Opening Day. Against Braves’ lefty Tom Glavine, Valentine put Robin Ventura third followed by Mike Piazza.

“With Glavine starting, maybe we can get him out of a little rhythm before he throws to Mike,” Valentine said when going through his reasoning. “Then you have the other left-hander spaced out so it doesn’t make it real easy with Glavine or their bullpen.”

Right fielder Darryl Hamilton, the other lefty hitter, was in the seventh spot in the order. The lineup began with Benny Agbayani and Edgardo Alfonzo then came Ventura, Piazza, Todd Zeile, Jay Payton, Hamilton, Rey Ordonez and Al Leiter.

“It seems like a couple of [Glavine’s] Cy Young-type seasons when he gets in a groove, he stays in it,” Valentine said.

Hearing Valentine talk about lineups is like listening to a scientist. He has a lot of theories of how they work. He looks at stacks and stacks of statistics.

Part of the reason, Valentine batted Ventura third yesterday was because last season when teams would put in lefty relievers to face Ventura late in games, the lefties would stay in with the back of the order coming up. With Piazza behind Ventura, this likely will change.

“They look good together,” Valentine said. “He [Ventura’s] swinging well. Mike’s swinging well. We might be able to score more runs, that would be good. Scoring more runs is always a good thing for your team.”

Valentine also said future lineups could have Alfonzo batting fifth and Zeile hitting second. He brought up stats that show how, on average, the second-place hitter receives one more at-bat every five games.

Valentine thinks the Mets’ troubles against left-handed pitching was due to the predominance of right-handed hitting in their lineup. This, of course, goes against conventional thinking that righties hit lefties better.

But Valentine thinks that last year allowed guys to get into a rhythm against his club last season.

“I think without a doubt,” Valentine said.

Yesterday was the first of 19 meetings between the Braves and the Mets. Because this is the case throughout baseball, Valentine thinks mixing up lineups might be more important than ever.

“Maybe this year, this will be even more prevalent in baseball because of the division play, than you’ve every seen before,” Valentine said.

Valentine doesn’t look at the lineup as one-through-nine. For example, he doesn’t believe in the classic leadoff guy.

In fact, he thinks that base stealers belong at the bottom of the order, unless you have someone like Rickey Henderson.

Valentine’s point is a valid one. Why would you want someone getting thrown out at second with Alfonzo, Ventura and Piazza coming up.

Instead Valentine favors a guy who can hit doubles, like Agbayani. This is part of the reason a guy like Jason Tyner was traded to Tampa last year. Tyner is a singles hitter and so he had to be very successful at stealing second to put himself in scoring position.

Valentine also isn’t as interested in the order as he is in how guys are lined up together.

“I like to see groupings that work together and work together against bullpens and against certain type of pitchers,” Valentine said.

So Valentine will switch things up. Timo Perez is a guy who will lead off some games, but his on-base percentage will be something to watch. If it is low, he could wind up batting seventh.

Ideally, Valentine wants a guy to get on-base 40 percent of the time at the leadoff position. This creates opportunity. Perez hasn’t shown yet he can draw a walk, so his on-base percentage has been lower.