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December 23, 2003
Old Folks Home
The Yankees have signed Kenny Lofton to a two-year deal. I'm sure he'll play center while Williams moves to designated hitter. He's going to improve the Yankees defense in center, although he's not the fielder he once was. My question is, will he lead off? He had a .352 OBA last year, .381 in 56 games for the Cubs. At .352, he'll be a better leadoff man than Soriano, who should probably be hitting 8th on this team. Off the top of my head, I'd probably go with this lineup:
Jeter and Matsui will both turn 30 next June. Having 8 or your 9 starting batters on the downside of their careers should worry management. Still, it's an impressive lineup. They'll just have to keep remaking it every other year. Comments
Puts a lot of pressure on Torre. A $180+ million roster - probably $50 million more than Boston - means that anything short of winning the World Series is a dismal failure of a season for this team. Posted by: John Gibson at December 23, 2003 03:53 PMThey have bought their way into the playoffs again in 2004. But, just as in 2003, there is no guarantee of getting to the World Series, let alone winning it. Posted by: Easycure at December 23, 2003 04:08 PMI think that Lofton is going to platoon with a righthanded firstbaseman. Someone earlier (was it here of on Bronx Banter) that it might be Eric Karros, who is great against lefties (.986 OPS vs. LH pitchers). I don't know if Torre would platoon them that way, but it gets Giambi out of the field on some days, at the same time keeping Bernie happy playing in the field against the occasional lefty. The defense will take a hit in CF, but it would improve at 1B. Posted by: sabernar at December 23, 2003 04:29 PMI'd like to see the lineup you have posted here but I'd flip Giambi and Sheffield due to Giambi's huge walk totals. I like Soriano 8th. What gets to me about Torre's lineups (aside from Soriano leading off) is his reluctance to put Posada in the middle of the lineup. I like him at #5 on this team. For a lot of other teams he'd be batting third. Posted by: Scott at December 23, 2003 05:36 PMShef was no slouch with the walks: 86 BB last year and a .419 OBP. Yeah, Giambi walks more, but wouldn't it be nice if Shef was on base with his speed for Giambi to knock him home? I like Shef batting 3rd. But at the same time, I agree: Torre probably won't bat Soriano 8th - he's viewed as too valuable, even if his OPS is only .863. Posted by: sabernar at December 23, 2003 07:32 PMYour lineup is pretty good, but I would put Giambi ahead of Sheffield because it breaks up the righties. I'd also bat Matsui 8th and Soriano 7th for the same reason. In addition, with Gary Sheffield on deck, a manager would think twice before bringing in a lefty to face Giambi. Since Sheffield murders lefties, the manager would have to know he could use his lefty for only one batter. Posted by: Todd at December 24, 2003 11:20 AM My lineup: Todd makes some excellent points. One not mentioned is that this lineup has a lot of speed, so there's no excuse not to have someone fast bat ahead of Matsui who was Mr. GIDP last year. I expect Torre to lead Lofton off and keep Giambi at three. Something like this: Lofton (L) Which is does a great job of stymying match-ups. Of course if I was in charge, Jeter would lead off. Something like: Jeter (R) Which still kills match-ups. The key here is that the Yankees have six plus guys on offense and Kenny Lofton is not one of them. Those six guys should be the top six in the order, where they'll get the most at-bats. And, yes, Lofton should be platooned, but the Yankees need to find a lefty-killer who will let them do that first (the sans-Lofton line-up should put the lefty-killer at 7 and push Boone & Godzilla down). Posted by: Cliff at December 24, 2003 02:15 PMI agree with Cliff that Jeter should bat leadoff. He's performed extremely well when he's batted there and would probably be the top leadoff man in the game. Why Yankee management continues to bat him 2nd is a mystery to me. Cliff's lineup is also the best I've seen, putting the best hitters at the top of the lineup and alternating the righties and lefties perfectly. Joe will never do it, though. We'll probably be stuck with some kind of idiotic Soriano-Lofton-Jeter grouping at the top of the lineup. Maybe he'll bat Matsui 4th. ::rolling eyes:: Posted by: Todd at December 26, 2003 08:53 PMI think however you slice it, the loss of Nick Johnson in that lineup (and as a competent 1B platoon for Giambi) hurts them more than whatever Lofton adds, which may not be all that much. And I don't see how Lofton constitutes a defensive upgrade in center, even if Bernie has no arm (like, Lofton does?). This guy is NOT Paul Blair. It's more important that Mattingly can somehow a) turn Soriano into more of a selective hitter, and b) get Aaron Boone to live with the fact that he's just a .265 hitter but one who can make productive outs at least half the time. They don't need 17 HRs from Aaron Boone, this is not Cincinnati. And a healthy Giambi slashing at a .320 clip trumps everything.
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