Where to bat Mike Morse

By foxsports
Published

Bruce Bochy has really just one major decision to make before Game 1 of the World Series: Where to bat his DH Mike Morse. Most National League teams don't have a decent DH option when they play road games in the World Series. Bochy has an easy option in Morse, but where he slots in the lineup is not as easy.  

Morse, who played left field for the Giants this year when he wasn't hurt, missed nearly all of September with an oblique injury. He delivered a huge pinch-hit home run in the clinching Game 5 off Pat Neshek to tie it in the 8th.

The likely options for Morse are 6th, 7th or 8th.

The case for 7th -€“ Morse batting in front of Travis Ishikawa would give the Giants a much more likely power source behind Brandon Belt. If you're thinking of riding the hot bat of Ishikawa after his NLCS walk-off home run, don'€™t overthink it. We all remember Aaron Boone's heroics in the 2003 ALCS. Boone followed that historic walk-off homer by hitting .143 in 21 at bats in the World Series. 

The case for 8th -€“ Morse after Travis Ishikawa is a fair option, not because of the Ishikawa home run, but more because Ishikawa has been playing regularly and you expect him to put better at-bats together. Morse ran into a hanging slider in the NLCS and has high swing-and-miss numbers: 25% in 2014.

The case for 6th -€“ This might be a little bit of a stretch, but Bruce Bochy could consider dropping leadoff man Gregor Blanco to 8th or 9th. Blanco has batted .159/.229 this postseason. The move would not be unprecedented. Last postseason, former Tigers manager Jim Leyland dropped leadoff man Austin Jackson to 8th after a 2-for-32 stretch. The Giants don't really have a viable option to replace Blanco, so if they did drop him, the smart move would be to just slide everyone up one. Yes, that puts Buster Posey batting second. That's OK, he is the Giants best hitter.

If Bochy got aggressive and made this move, that would slide Morse to 6th if you like him before Ishikawa, or 7th if you prefer him after. It's risky and would be met with skepticism, but when you look at it objectively, a case can be made for the change.

Regardless, Bruce Bochy has a viable DH candidate, and we'll have the answer soon enough.