M's search for No. 3 hitter; Vidro most likely candidate

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Mariners/MLB

Saturday, February 24, 2007

M's search for No. 3 hitter; Vidro most likely candidate

By JOHN HICKEY
P-I REPORTER

PEORIA, Ariz. -- In college basketball this time of year, the chant is: "Who's No. 1?"

In the Mariners camp, the question is: "Who's No. 3?"

Manager Mike Hargrove said he has his ideal lineup ready to commit to pen and paper.


		Grant M. Haller / P-I
	Jose Vidro

Some of the spots are obvious, like Ichiro Suzuki batting first and Jose Lopez and Yuniesky Betancourt batting eighth and ninth.

The real question is who will be the No. 3 batter. By the end of last season, catcher Kenji Johjima had the job, but his .230 average there isn't going to get him a repeat gig.

Raul Ibanez had a decent time batting third, averaging .267 with seven homers, but he was a monster in the cleanup spot, pushing his average to .301 with 26 of his 33 homers.

Adrian Beltre was the best of the group at .270 with 10 homers, but there are two things keeping Beltre from being the guy.

One is that you want more than .270 in 163 at-bats from your No. 3 hitter, and the other is that he averaged .310 with 13 homers in 258 at-bats batting second.

On paper, perhaps the most likely No. 3 hitter is newcomer Jose Guillen, but there are drawbacks.

Over the past three years, his average is just .247, and in his best season, 2004 with Anaheim, he batted mostly fourth and fifth.

As of today, with the first spring training games still about a week away, the most likely No. 3 hitter is Jose Vidro.

There was a time when it wouldn't have been odd to see Vidro in that spot.

Vidro came up with the Montreal Expos and in a five-season stretch starting in 1999, his batting averages went .304, .330, .319, .315 and .310. He was a three-time All-Star second baseman and a player anyone would want to have near the top of the lineup.

But in the past three seasons, his average has taken a tumble and he hasn't been healthy. From 2004 on, he averaged 108 games a year, missing an average of one-third of the season the past three years.

How can any offense afford that?

The Mariners believe that moving the career .301 hitter from the field to designated hitter will take the strain off his knees and hamstrings and keep him in the lineup.

"I'm comfortable batting third, second or third or anywhere, really," Vidro said Friday. "My top priority is to make myself available to be in the lineup every day. I'm healthy again, and that's the most important thing.

"As to where I hit, I'm not a home run hitter. But I get on. I move runners over. I hit line drives. I find the gaps. I don't change what I'm doing because of where I am in the order. Those things I do can help us win.

"We're in an era where people look at the big numbers, the home runs and RBIs. They forget about the little numbers. And it's the little numbers that help you win games."

That sounds just like what hitting coach Jeff Pentland has in mind.

Hargrove will make the final call on the No. 3 hitter. He said he has an idea of who he'd like it to be, but wouldn't provide a name.

Pentland, on the other hand, knows what he likes in a No. 3 hitter, and he makes it clear he likes what Vidro offers.

"Right now, Jose Vidro would probably be the front-runner to bat third," Pentland said. "He has a lot of the attributes you like there. He's going to hit for average. He's going to walk some and have a decent on-base percentage, and he's not going to strike out much.

"He makes a lot of contact, really drives the ball a lot."

Vidro seems to be different from other Seattle regulars in that he has learned to coax walks out of pitchers.

Although he hasn't hit .300 in any of the past three years, he's had three of his four best years in on-base percentage the past three seasons.

Statistically, having Vidro bat third is a huge gamble.

He is just a .283 hitter lifetime batting third; he's been much more productive batting second (.327). In the past three seasons, the contrast is more stark, .347 batting second and .252 batting third.

At the same time, the other hitters all seem to fit better into their assigned roles if Vidro can hold his own batting third.

If the gamble with Vidro is a winner, it may pay off big time for the rest of Seattle's offense.

THIRD WHEELS

How members of this year’s Mariner team did while batting third last year:

Player	AB	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OBP
Jose Lopez	179	11	2	1	21	.274	.325
Adrian Beltre	163	10	0	10	23	.279	.331
Raul Ibanez	220	13	3	7	35	.268	.328
Kenji Johjima	61	3	0	3	12	.230	.284
Yuniesky Betancourt	38	2	0	0	1	.211	.250
Jose Guillen*	47	3	0	2	6	.170	.278
Jose Vidro*	143	8	0	3	16	.252	.303

How teams in the American League West did while batting third last year:
Team	AB	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OBP
Mariners in 2006	666	39	5	21	92	.263	.319
Rangers in 2006	657	51	2	25	105	.283	.351
A’s in 2006	655	30	2	20	82	.255	.331
Angels in 2006	665	37	1	24	89	.272	.319
AL average in 2006	645	36	3	27	103	.282	.357