I would love to see Betts hitting third. Just because! but alas I'm pretty comfortable with Cora's decisions. There are numerous people who seem to think that your best hitter should hit in a specific spot in the lineup. The question that I have not seen answered definitively is what constitutes your best hitter?
It seems to me that we have no ideal lead-off hitter and no ideal 5th hitter. We have twos and threes, one fourth, and lots of 6-9 types. This missing ideal 1 and 5 has been an almost ongoing problem for a couple decades it seems--or longer. But, of course, since other teams have worse problems, it matters not.
Last season we hit .268 (unimpressive for a sox team) but the MLB average hitter hit .248 and the Yanks hit .249. so, this problem is more in theory than anything. Also, I think that my idea of a lead-off hitter is now outdated unfortunately in an age when almost all hitters refuse to moderate their swing and approach to fit the need. (I guess some would argue for Pedroia, but he's more like a 2 or 7 hitter to me)
Cora has a good point. He told Mookie that leading off guaranteed him 162AB’s with nobody on base. With Beni in the leadoff role, that drops down to 102 based on Beni’s OBP.
Now I’m really extrapolating here, but if you use the % of times Betts gets an EBH and multiply that by the AB’s where Beni would be on base, you see Betts driving in 10 more runs based on first inning placement alone
True, but then subtract the RBI's Beni loses, and as Kimmi points out, the differences are minimal.
I like Betts 2nd. It's where studies show the best hitter should bat.
Beni has improved his base running, so I'm okay with him up 1st. I'd probably have Bogey lead off vs LHPs, but I'm fine with keeping it simple.