Jason Giambi, who was excused from having to testify before Congress, is having as good a spring as anyone could have expected. He isn’t tearing the cover off the ball, but Giambi isn’t especially anxious either. According to Tyler Kepner in the New York Times:
Giambi has one extra-base hit so far, a home run on March 7, and he recently told [hitting coach, Don] Mattingly that he wanted to hit more doubles. Mattingly laughed him off – “You can’t direct it,” he told Giambi – but he understood Giambi’s larger meaning, that he wants to drive balls to the gaps.
“I don’t talk about anything other than getting a good pitch and hitting the ball hard,” Mattingly said. “If he’s having a good path to the ball and he’s seeing the ball good, he can hit. I don’t worry about home runs. They’ll happen.”
Much as been made of Giabmi getting off to a good start once the season begins. Where do you think Torre will bat him in the line-up come Opening Day?
1. Sixth
2. Sixth is probably right, or seventh, but as long as he's a singles (and hopefully doubles) hitter who gets his walks, why not second? I really dislike A-Rod in that spot.
3. Sixth sounds right.
Jeter
ARod
Sheff
Matsui
Posada
Giambi
Williams
Martinez
Womack
4. Giambi can't bat second. Unless he hits a double, Giambi on first from a walk or a single clogs the basepaths. He is 3 singles away from scoring when he is on first.
5. I'm not totally comfortable with my second suggestion, but would you rather him clog the bases in front of guys who hit doubles and home runs (Sheff, A-Rod, Matsui) or in front of weaker hitters like Bernie and Womack? He's going to clog the bases wherever he is, so he might as well be in front of the sluggers.
I just want to see A-Rod, Matsui and Sheff in the 3-4-5 spots, without having Womack as the leadoff hitter. This is the only really way to do this, unfortunately, unless you bat Bernie second.
6. rsmith51 is almost right or very close to right about what Joe will do. I'd actually be OK with Giambi in the two slot though -- getting on base is a lot more important than speed on the bases, and Bernie will probably hit in 40 double plays batting behind Giambi, undermining a lot of Giambi's on-base value.
7. Oops. Make that "rsmith51 is almost certainly right..."