Squab - perhaps you are right. he is below average for P/PA for his career (3.66, avg is 3.81). he almost always used to face about 62 - 65% strikes and this year he's faced 58%. He is drawing more walks, too. Something may be real here because he is drawing 2x the walks he drew last year when he batted 8th. Most of his career, he's 2:1 K:BB ratio. This year, it is 1.1:1. Perhaps it is just he's very comfortable batting 8th in the NL.
Still, I'm appalled at using Lombo and DE at #2. They are both below .300 in OBP and do not work the count well. I'd be inclined to see if Suzuki can carry over his plate approach to #2 before I'd run those guys out there in that slot. I'd also be inclined to let Rendon see if he can figure it out.
Ideally I'd have Espinosa bat eighth, he would be less inclined to strike out. But then you've got
Span L
Werth R
Bryce L
Zim R
LaRoche L
Desmond R
Suzuki/Ramos R
Espinosa S
P
It messes up Davey's beloved L/R order, but I think it'd be better. Desmond hits a lot of doubles, it sucks to not have someone that can drive him in more consistently, or at least get on base to pass the buck and drive up pitch counts.
