Thursday, April 16, 2009
The top of a baseball lineup generally gets all the attention but the bottom usually determines how good a team really is.
Case in point: This year’s Jayhawks.
Kansas has seen the one through five hitters excede expectations in almost everyway. Lead by sophomore third baseman Tony Thompson, the one through five hitters have combined for a .347 average and 129 of the Jayhawks 221 RBIs.
Head Coach Ritch Price speaks with an umpire after a questionable call on Kansas base runner Nick Faunce after being picked off at second base during an April 4 game against Baylor.
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Players who have batted sixth or lower in the lineup:
PLAYER | AVG | HR | RBI | SO |
Zac Elgie | .310 | 1 | 16 | 14 |
Casey Lytle | .301 | 0 | 14 | 16 |
Nick Faunce | .264 | 2 | 23 | 23 |
Jason Brunansky | .247 | 2 | 8 | 26 |
Preston Land | .229 | 0 | 6 | 37 |
Jimmy Waters | .224 | 0 | 9 | 17
Unfortunately, the bottom half hasn’t been quite as successful. Sure, the weaker hitters are generally designated to the six, seven, eight and nine spots of the lineup, but coach Ritch Price said he needs more contributions from that part of the order when Kansas travels to Texas Tech this weekend.
“If we can get some help on the tail end of our lineup, we’d be really good offensively,” Price said. “Right now we’ve got some holes in seven, eight, nine in our lineup.”
It’s not as if Price hasn’t tried mixing things up. A total number of six players have seen their fair amount of playing time if those last four spots and every time it seems as if one player is poised to breakout, the next few games are a disappointment.
Sophomore outfielder Jimmy Waters started the season as the designated hitter/left fielder. For a majority of the season he batted in the six spot and performed admirably enough, keeping his average around .270.
But in his last 12 games Waters only has three hits as his playing time has fluctuated.
“I’ve been struggling at the plate lately. I’ve just been trying to battle trough it,” Waters said. “I’ve been talking to coaches and we’re trying to get through it.”
Waters had shoulder surgery over the summer and the rehab process has taken its toll on him getting back into the swing of things. Price wants and needs his bat in the lineup if his Jayhawks are going to keep at the winning rate they’ve been at the last two weeks.
“He has not gotten it going yet,” Price said. “He’s late on fastballs, and he’s on his backside, and we can’t get him in rhythm to get him loaded up to be on time with the fastball and he knows it.”
After Tuesday’s extra inning victory over Creighton, Kansas is now 8-7 in one run games. And with the way the bottom of the order has performed, Price acknowledges that those numbers could have been better with a more complete team production, specifically the second game of the Texas A&M series back on March 28th.
“The one run losses that we had at Texas A&M I mean one of those games we we’re 0 – for – 15 from our six through nine spot in our lineup,” Price said.
With the top of the order hitting so well, those 0 – for – 15 games from the bottom of the order leave a lot of runs on the bases. It seemed as if freshman first baseman Zac Elgie was ready to account for the bottom order’s struggles after last week which saw him have three consecutive multi-hit games, including his first home run as a college player.
But since then Elgie has gone 1-for-9 with five strikeouts as the bottom order carousel continues.
“Yesterday Elgie was the triple and the home run and he was really good,” Price said after last Saturday’s victory over Oklahoma State. “Then today he got exposed with the slider.”
If the latter half of the order doesn’t produce, look for the top guy to see better pitches to hit as opposing pitchers will try to work around them. But considering Kansas has played about as well as any other team defensively and on the mound, Price is ready to be patient.
“If I can get some consistency from Elgie and Waters continues to make progress the last half of the season I think we can get it going a little bit,” Price said.
— — Edited by Realle Roth
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