December 18, 2006
Names in a Hat
Bob McManaman notes that given the starting eight for Arizona, Bob Melvin doesn't have an obvious lineup:
"We really don't have a prototypical leadoff guy; we really don't have a prototypical No. 4 guy," Melvin said. "We've got lots of guys that we feel like are 2, 3, 5, 6 guys. . . . If those are our biggest problems, then we can figure a way out to do something at least day to day on lineups. It doesn't have to be a set lineup every day."
Bob can always try this. The numbers are career numbers for everyone but Chris Young. For Chris, I used his Bill James Baseball Handbook projection. For the pitchers, I used 2006 Arizona pitchers combined. (Just to be complete, here's the lineup using 2007 projections.)
One thing I like about the Arizona lineup is that while they don't have one player who is outstanding at getting on base, most of their players are above average. That should give the team an above average OBA and above average run scoring. They just need to get the pitchers ERA below average so they can win.
Why do all the recommended lineups put Snyder in the 9 spot behind the pitcher?
The way the math works out, it's better to have the weakest hitter in the 8th spot. You don't want the weakest hitter close to your best hitters, who are at the top of the order.
"...it's better to have the weakest hitter in the 8th spot."
That's funny, because I used to do that all the time playing Baseball Stars on the NES as a child. It always seemed like a better idea to have a decent hitter up before going back to the top of the lineup.
I've often heard that Managers can only control the order in the first inning when making a lineup, but I always thought that this type of "non-traditional" lineup gave managers more control of what order their batters would come up later in games.
It's nice to see these childhood ideas backed up by the numbers.