March 24--Newton's first law of motion met Maddon's first law of emotion Wednesday morning.
The Cubs manager expounded about objects in motion as they related to his lineups.
He wants his batting order fluid, so he isn't hesitant to move guys around, whether that's conventional thinking or not.
He pointed to batting Chris Coghlan third sometimes last season and how the Cubs at one point were 12-0 with a second baseman occupying what many consider to be a place reserved for heavy hitters.
"That's the one part (that's) lagging when it comes to matrixes or sabermetrics or whatever: How do you protect people (in the order)?" Maddon said. "It's easy to say you want (Kris) Bryant to get more at-bats, you want (more for Anthony) Rizzo. But I like to feed these guys too, and you like to protect them (so they get better pitches to hit)."
Maddon said most guys who want to bat third have no idea why, other than ego and status.
Coghlan hit .270 with five of his 16 home runs and an .848 OPS in 36 games hitting third for the Cubs last season while playing second and in the outfield.
"I would imagine nobody wanted us to do that, but it played pretty well," Maddon said.
Second baseman Ben Zobrist batted third Wednesday against the Rangers behind Jason Heyward and ahead of Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber.
Maddon pointed to things that don't show up in math equations, like how a player feels on a particular day, what Maddon's gut tells him.
"All this stuff matters, I don't care what anybody says," Maddon said. "If you can't quantify it, it doesn't mean it's not there. It's in the dugout on both sides.
"The theory of hitting your best hitter third, the one thing I do believe and I'm finding out a lot, is the third hitter comes up a lot with two outs and nobody on. Why would you want to put your best hitter there?
"Then the supposed best hitter is going to complain about hitting fourth because he comes up a lot with nobody on base, leading off an inning. What would you rather have?"
Maddon knows he would rather have changes every day.
Wednesday, after Schwarber caught Jason Hammel and batted sixth Tuesday, the second-year player was in left field hitting third.
"Whatever the team wants to do, I'm going to do it," Schwarber said.
Maddon went on to explain that this year he likely will return to tradition and bat his pitchers ninth most of the time. He pointed to the development of shortstop Addison Russell as a main reason why he won't bat them eighth a lot as he did last season.
Russell responded, finishing strong while hitting .246 out of the ninth spot with 13 home runs and 45 RBIs in 398 at-bats.
"I thought if he had hit eighth in front of the pitcher that would have thwarted his development somewhat." Maddon said. "I liked him in the nine hole."
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