HOUSTON -- Throughout his playing career, Cecil Cooper was often the "go-to" guy in the lineup, the slugger who hit third and was largely depended upon by his team to drive in runs at the most crucial times.

So Cooper understands the pride factor that goes along with hitting in the coveted third and fourth spots in the order, occupied by the team's most elite hitters.

This year, Cooper has a problem many managers would like to have. He has too many No. 3 and 4 hitters and not enough spots to accommodate them. Tragic? Hardly. Even in the best of times in the last four years, the Astros' offense has been the team's Achilles' heel. To have a batting order that is expected to be a force in the National League Central is a welcome change.

Heading into Spring Training, Miguel Tejada is penciled in as the No. 3 hitter, followed by Lance Berkman, Carlos Lee and Hunter Pence. But with Opening Day just under two months away, Cooper intends to play around with different scenarios during the exhibition season, which begins at the end of February.

Cooper also intends to include his elite hitters in the decision-making process. The ultimate call, of course, is Cooper's. But he knows that this is a sensitive topic, especially considering he's asking his two mainstay horses -- Berkman and Lee -- to drop a spot in the order.

Recently, Cooper expressed a desire to speak with three of his RBI producers -- Tejada, Berkman and Lee -- to make sure they were all on the same page. He has two messages: He wants them to be happy with their spot in the order and their role on the team, and he wants to also make sure everyone understands that the team, and its best interests, always come first.

"It's a sensitive issue with some of those guys," Cooper said. "I remember in my days playing. There's something to be said for someone hitting in the three-hole or the four-hole. I know there's something to be said for that.

"I know how I was [when I was playing]. Guys like to get in slots and remain in slots. That's why I say we have to sit down as a group, iron this out, and let's put the team first in all of this. We should all have one goal."

Lee might need some convincing that the five-hole is the best place for him, but Berkman has already embraced the cleanup role. He sees the logic in sandwiching his left-handed bat in between right-handed-hitting sluggers Tejada and Lee. As an added bonus, Berkman cites cleanup as his favorite place to hit.

"I do like hitting fourth because you have more RBI opportunities," Berkman said. "That's where I prefer to hit."

Looking at his career numbers, Berkman clearly is comfortable in all spots in the middle of the order. He's had more at-bats in the cleanup role than any other, but his stats hitting third and fourth are nearly identical.

In the three-hole, Berkman has a career average of .298 with 106 home runs and 337 RBIs over 450 games. As the cleanup hitter, he has a career average of .306 with 109 homers and 353 RBIs over 479 games.

He's hit fifth in 150 career games, producing a .301 average with 25 homers and 97 RBIs. So when Berkman says he doesn't care where he hits, it's easy to believe him.

"I couldn't care less," Berkman said. "I would hit fifth if they want me to, but that doesn't make a lot of sense when you've got Tejada and Carlos, who are both right-handed, and I'm left-handed. It just seems like we need to come up with some combination where it splits them up, because it makes it tough on an opposing manager to make a move."

Lee has hit cleanup more than any other spot throughout his eight-year big league career. He has hit fifth in 249 games, but other than one game in 2007, he hasn't been slotted into that spot in the order since 2004.

As the No. 5 hitter, Lee has a career average of .282 with 24 homers and 134 RBIs. In the cleanup role, he's made 491 appearances and has 108 homers and 366 RBIs and a .293 average -- his highest of all spots in the order.

Interestingly, Tejada is slotted for the three-hole, but judging by his results last year, he might be a better fit as the cleanup man. In an injury-shortened season in '07, Tejada hit .252 over 32 games in the third spot. In a cleanup role, he hit .312 over 88 games.

Career-wise, Tejada has played 480 games in the three-hole and has a .292 average. Over 417 games in the cleanup spot, he's hit .318.

What's a manager to do?

"I think you have to play with it," Cooper said. "When we get into Spring Training, we'll play some games and play around with it a little bit."

Count Cooper as one skipper who's not terribly upset he has too many elite hitters who are used to carrying their team's offense.

"Tejada's probably hit third most of his career," Cooper said. "So has Lance. Carlos has hit fourth more than anywhere else. There might be a situation where we just say, OK, we're going to hit Carlos fourth and Lance fifth when a certain pitcher's pitching. We'll just have to sit down and really see how it works."