The Diamondbacks know left fielder Luis Gonzalez will be their No. 3 hitter this season. But who bats cleanup -- and how much he prevents teams from pitching around Arizona's 57-homer man -- remains to be seen.
Before spring training got under way, manager Bob Brenly said third baseman Matt Williams would be best fit. But Williams is out until at least July with left-leg injuries. Williams missed a third of last season, so eight different players hit fourth. Arizona used four different cleanup men in the seven games of the World Series.
Unless somebody really jumps to the forefront and shows he really deserves those at-bats, Brenly says, "We'll probably mix and match again."
Greg Colbrunn, who might get some time at third base and who is a career .302 hitter with men in scoring position, and Erubiel Durazo, who might play some right field, would be natural cleanup hitters when in the lineup. First baseman Mark Grace, who hit fourth 43 times last season, is also a possibility, along with second baseman/third baseman Jay Bell, center fielder Steve Finley and right fielder Danny Bautista.
Brenly likes alternating lefthanded and righthanded hitters in the middle of the order to prevent opposing managers from making good use of a specialist reliever. Like Gonzalez, however, Grace, Finley and Durazo all bat lefthanded.
Grace "a contact, line-drive hitter" has a .320 career average in the cleanup spot, with a good .411 on-base percentage but a relatively low .490 slugging average.
Arizona was 9-3 last year with Bautista batting fourth, the best mark of the eight cleanup men. But in 87 career at-bats from the No. 4 hole (50 of them last season), Bautista never has homered. Brenly said he likes Bautista as a No. 2 hitter.
Last season, Arizona got 22 homers and 99 RBIs out of the No. 4 spot. In the NL, only Cincinnati had fewer cleanup homers and only the Mets and Reds had fewer RBIs. . . . more
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