Mad?? haha. I didn't get mad. You guys brought up the problem, but didn't give any possible solutions. Just wanted to see what options you guys thought would be better.
The reality is that there are few options other than be patient with Michael Bourn or move Matsui out of his comfort zone and make him leadoff. The problem with Matsui is that many have pointed out that he has a poor OBP set of stats for his career. Matsui is patient, but he will put bat on ball a lot and that drops his OBP unless he hits for a very high average. Erstad has leadoff in his career (AL ball though) and could do that for a stretch, but Erstad is not an every day player any more. He would lose his effectiveness given more time.
Pence is a hacker and if nobody cares about that, then leave him at leadoff and hope for the best. But when the top four guys were mashing (Tejada, Berkman, Lee and Pence), Bourn and Matsui weren't doing much other than take a ton of pitches. They made the pitcher work, so the guys behind them got to see the pitches they needed to see to know what approach to take to the plate.
Moving Bourn out and inserting Pence has changed Matsui's game, so now Tejada, Berkman and Lee will see less in terms of what a pitcher is doing. Plus Pence is getting carved up as a leadoff because it is totally different to grip it and rip it as a leadoff than hitting behind Tejada, Berkman and Lee when those guys are gettiing on-base and mashing.
