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The Philadelphia Phillies have a new rabbit in their lineup to replace Shane Victorino. They obtained Ben Revere in a trade over the winter with the Minnesota Twins. Victorino headed north up I-95 to the Boston Red Sox.
Revere stole 74 bases over the past two seasons with the Twins. So it might seem obvious that he would bat first or second in the Phillies lineup. But not so fast here. Revere bats left, as do Ryan Howard and Chase Utley. So that causes some issues. Moreover, Charlie Manuel might prefer to keep veteran Jimmy Rollins as the leadoff hitter and put right-handed-hitting Michael Young second.
So where does that leave Revere, batting in the eight hole? You wouldn’t expect him to score a lot of runs down there. He has no power, still looking for his first major league HR. Therefore RBI will be limited as well. He averages only one walk in every 17 AB and strikes out 1.5 times for every walk. His career batting average is .278. It is difficult to see him being a good lead-off hitter. Maybe the best we can expect is that Manuel would start him high in the order against righties and low in the order against lefties.
Revere has been drafted this spring around position 160. I would prefer some other outfielders who are going a little later. For example, with Angel Pagan you would get an occasional HR and the certainty that he will be at the top of the lineup for the San Franciso Giants. I would also prefer Norichika Aoki for the same two reasons.
The bottom line here is that while Revere could give you a lot of steals, he might not give you much else.
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