AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2005 > October > 05
Wednesday, October 5, 2005
Jordan in, Langerhans out
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It wasn’t the first time Bobby Cox made a postseason lineup decision that left observers scratching their heads. So it wasn’t too shocking when Ryan Langerhans wasn’t in the lineup in left field for Game 1 of the division series today, and Brian Jordan was.
But it still caused some scratching of the head.
Here’s what I mean: Langerhans has been one of the hottest hitters on the team for the past few weeks, batting .367 (22-for-60) with seven doubles, a homer, 11 RBIs and a .465 on-base percentage in his last 21 games. He has hit .317 at home this season and .216 on the road (this is a home game, obviously).
Langerhans has hit .293 against lefties (lefty Andy Pettitte is starting today for Houston) and .261 against righties. He’s hit .270 with six homers, a robust .504 slugging percentage and 21 RBIs in 39 day games (this is a day game) and .265-2-21 with a .384 slugging percentage in 89 night games.
In other words, if Langerhans was going to sit for a game in this series, this would be about the last one you’d expect him to sit for. And we haven’t even mentioned that the Texas native was 5-for-13 with three homers and seven RBIs against Houston this season, which was enough for many to expect Langerhans to be in the lineup every game against the Astros.
By the way: Jordan is 1-for-11 in his career against Pettitte; Langerhans hasn’t faced him.
“Just hoping to catch lightning in a bottle,” Cox said when I asked him about it before the game. He went on to say that Jordan’s knee has been better and that he hit the ball hard in the last week of the regular season, which he did. Jordan was 3-for-10 with a triple in his last four games, including two starts in the Braves’ last five games of the season.
Still, he batted .240 with one homer and seven RBIs in 121 at-bats since May 10, missing much of the season with chronic knee problems. But when he’s healthy, Jordan has played solid defense and still has speed. And maybe Bobby figures he hasn’t been a lot of help as a pinch hitter, going 2-for-14 with seven strikeouts in that role this season. But I think it probably comes down to Bobby’s loyalty and belief in veterans coming up big in key games, even if Jordan has given little reason of late to reinforce that confidence.
This is probably the impetus to the move: He’s performed in postseason play, including four homers and 22 RBIs in his past 25 games. But Jordan’s last postseason game before today was 2001, and he was a far better, healthier player back then.
Let’s watch. If he goes 2-for-4 with a double or whatever, then Bobby’s hunch paid off. But you can bet, if Jordan goes 0-for and strikes out two or three times and the Braves lose, there’s going to be a lot of second-guessing right out of the box in this postseason.
