New York Mets Likely to Assign Lead Off Duties to Andres Torres
As we gear up for Spring Training and the promise of real baseball, the New York Mets are surprisingly set throughout their 25-man roster. There are plenty of questions surrounding the organization, but on the field the New York Mets have most of their rotation set and they have a very good idea of who will be filling out the lineup on Opening Day. One of the final decisions left to be made after a long and quiet offseason is whether or not the newly acquired Andres Torres will handle lead off duties. Even though the New York Mets do have a couple of options to choose from, the job is likely Andres Torres’ to lose according to MLB.com.
Daniel Murphy is the No. 2 option to lead things off each night, but as the article mentions, Muphy is not a “traditional” lead off hitter. Muphy does bring a better OBP which is more important than speed and stolen bases in some people’s eyes, but for others it is tough to go against the mold and Muphy does not fit the prototypical mold of a lead off hitter. I am still a little bit torn when it comes to building a batting order. On one hand I do like to have the speed at the top of the order. At the same time the lead off hitter is only guaranteed to lead off the first inning so perhaps some of the traits we have grown to covet out of lead-off hitters are overrated.
That is a bigger discussion to have on a different day. For now, I think the Mets will be making a good decision to slot Torres into the first spot in the batting order to start things off. As long as he’s closer to the player that he was in 2010 and in limited action in 2009 (.343 OBP) he should have no trouble holding down the lead off spot in 2012.
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