Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
March 12, 2007
Do the Pirates Have a Big League Lineup?

Paul Meyer talks about the Pittsburgh lineup transformation since acquiring Adam LaRoche:

"You say, 'Wow! We have a pretty good lineup now that he's in there,"' shortstop Jack Wilson said. "We had a couple holes in the past. I don't see any holes anymore, to be honest."

For years, it seems, the Pirates haven't had a big-league, everyday lineup -- a list of eight position players their manager could pretty much write down before every game.

Players would be platooned at one position. Maybe two. There would be a player who didn't pan out and would have to be sent back to the minor leagues, replaced by another player who wouldn't make it, either.

It was a trial and error process -- mostly error.

Not now, though.

So what is a big league lineup? One without holes? Jack Wilson sports a career .306 OBA and a career .368 slugging percentage. I'm pretty sure I could drive a truck through that hole. Chris Duffy, who according the article will bat second, boasts a .336/.364 OBA and slugging percentage. It's a small sample, but he didn't get to the majors until he was 25, which is also a clue to how good he is. So far, the truck is pretty big at the top of the order.

And at the bottom of the order will be Jose Castillo, he of the .301/.388 OBA/Slugging. Combined with the pitchers hitting, the 8-9-1-2 rotation of the order looks to be a barren wasteland for runs.

The best thing you can say about this lineup is the best hitters are at least grouped together. But the Pirates are going to give the pitcher a break every other inning, so I doubt they'll do much damage overall.

Correction: Fixed Castillo's OBA.


Posted by David Pinto at 03:32 PM | Team Evaluation | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Ouch. I almost feel bad for Pirate fans who might actually agree with Jack Wilson.

Brent Lillibridge wouldn't look good over Jack Wilson or anything.

Posted by: Pi Rates at March 12, 2007 04:14 PM

I think you mean .301/.388 for Castillo. .381/.388 would be pretty good for the #8 hole.

Posted by: Adam at March 12, 2007 04:14 PM

Actually, the article says that Duffy will be leading off. Of course, that just makes it worse, given that he will be followed by Jack Wilson. Worst of all, the Pirates projected lineup inexplicably has Jason Bay batting 5th, which means that more often than not, the Pirates' best hitter won't be batting until the second inning.

And at the bottom of the order will be Jose Castillo, he of the .381/.388 OBA/Slugging.

You might to want check those numbers again. Castillo's career OBP is .301, not .381.

Posted by: calig23 at March 12, 2007 04:16 PM
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