Fins and Feathers Lineup Examined

Main entry is below, but I thought I'd get another one up and look at this lineup.  Derrick Goold has it up early today:

1. Brian Barton, RF
2. Chris Duncan, LF
3. Albert Pujols, 1B
4. Rick Ankiel, CF
5. Troy Glaus, 3B
6. Yadier Molina, C
7. Adam Kennedy, 2B
8. Braden Looper, RHP
9. Cesar Izturis, SS

Bench: OF Skip Schumaker, C Jason LaRue, OF Ryan Ludwick, INF Brendan Ryan, OF Juan Gonzalez, INF D’Angelo Jimenez, INF Aaron Miles.

Bullpen: LHP Randy Flores, RHP Kyle McClellan, RHP Russ Springer, RHP Cliff Politte, RHP Hugo Castellanos,  RHP Kelvin Jimenez.

So, let's see.  We've got Barton leading off.  If he can hit, that'd be a great place for him.  Unfortunately, ESPN's spring stats don't include walks, so I don't know if he can get on base at a regular clip.  Still, it'd be great to have that kind of potential explosion leading off games.

Duncan's in the two hole.  I don't know if that's an idea for the regular season or to get him a few more ABs here in the spring to get him on track.  I think he probably would do some good work in front of AP (it worked in '06) but he's also shown that he can hit fourth as well, in case the Ankiel experiment there doesn't work out.

Pujols three.  Also, the sun came up today.

Ankiel in the four slot, as they continue to see if he can provide some protection for the big guy.

Glaus fifth, keeping with TLR's preferred alternating-sides lineup.  R-L-R-L-R.

Molina sixth.  I'm a little surprised to see that he's only hitting .209 this spring.  Granted, his defense will keep him in games, but when he's hitting .260 or so, that makes this lineup even more powerful.

Kennedy seventh, in front of the pitcher.  If TLR is serious about this second leadoff man idea and Kennedy continues to hit, he should be swapped with Izturis and hit ninth.  Because, otherwise, Kennedy gets a hit, the pitcher bunts him over, Izturis makes an out, and you've got a runner on with two out and little chance of getting back to Pujols.  Whereas if he hits ninth, he gets a hit and you've got the top of the order coming up.

Looper eighth.  Looper needs to have a good outing today.  He's not pitched very well this spring, there are some doubts whether he can recreate the season he had last year (and last year, save his strong start, really wasn't that spectacular either) and could find himself in the bullpen as other arms get healthy.  Stepping up today would go a little ways toward quieting that talk.

And Izturis ninth.  Not much else to say about that.

I do think it's pretty interesting that Kyle McClellan is still in camp and still getting innings.  I'm sure he'll get into today's game, so we'll have to see what he does then.



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