I'm starting to get tired of the misuse of players in the Nationals lineup. I hate looking at the lineup and seeing 1. Lopez 2. Guzman 3. Zimmerman 4. Young 5. Milledge (after that, it pretty much changes night-to-night).
Felipe Lopez IS NOT an ML-quality leadoff man. He has done nothing to deserve that spot. Just look at the stats:
-.268/.338/.354 out of the leadoff spot (this year).
-.255/.328/.329 this year total.
-.258/.320/.382 out of the leadoff spot (career).
-.258/.328/.393 career total.
The only logical reason for him to be there is the old-school method of "speed first," as he doesn't get on base enough to merit hitting there.
Cristian Guzman IS an ML-quality leadoff man (never thought I would say that sentence). At least when you look at it this way.
-.329/.350/.526 out of the leadoff spot (this year).
-.300/.322/.443 this year total.
-.284/.320/.448 out of the leadoff spot (career).
-.265/.303/.381 career total.
Guzman has superior numbers in 3 of the 4 categories (just not career total). Until he starts proving me wrong, I'm assuming Cristian Guzman's LASIK surgery and weight loss after the 2005 season are working. He's a completely different hitter and deserves to be the leadoff man. GUZMANIA BEGINS!!
So Lopez should bat second, right? Maybe. Lastings Milledge could the best option out of the 2 hole.
Here are Milledge's numbers:
-.298/.354/.439 out of the second spot (this year).
-.236/.301/.381 this year total (thanks to a .200/.265/.256 line out of the 5 slot)
-.295/.361/.432 out of the second spot (career).
-.250/.318/.384 career total.
Lopez hasn't hit out of the second spot this year, but sports a .264/.345/.391 career line there. In Milledge's short major league career, the second spot is really the only place he's had success, and I think his career line out of the second spot (although a somewhat small sample size, with only 111 PA) trumps Lopez's.
So here's what I'd like the lineup to be (most nights of the week):
1. Guzman-SS
2. Milledge-CF
3. Zimmerman-3B
4. Young-1B (Johnson when he's healthy)
5. Flores-C
6. Pena-LF
7. Lopez-2B
8. Dukes/Mackowiak/Langerhans-RF
9. Pitcher
Your thoughts?
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The hell of it is, Young is a great OBP guy. Thus, a great guy to have hit high in the lineup.
ReplyDeleteAnd, in the deathless words of Dusty Baker, a base-clogger. (I feel so unclean for acknowledging this.) Thus, a lousy guy to have hit high in the lineup.
Maybe we should steal a march on TLR and Yost and have the pitcher hit seventh. I have nothing further to offer.
If the pitcher is Micah Owings, I'd be willing to bat him cleanup!
ReplyDeleteI think that when Nick Johnson returns, he's best suited for either 2nd or 3rd in the lineup, just so he can get on for the guys with pop (wait...we have guys with pop?) can knock him in.
But you rarely see first basemen hit above 3 in the lineup. That would be too much of wishful thinking for us, I presume.