In the context of keeping all the starting 8 in, but altering their place in the order, which teams could improve with some tweaks?
Mets. My biggest issue has always been Strawberry batting 5th. He's practically buried and if you can get the speedy Dykstra and Wilson on, chances are likely Daryl never sees the batter box with a chance to drive them in. Strawberry cana also be frequently walked because he's got no protection.
I'd go with Dykstra, Wilson, Strawberry, Carter, Hernandez, Backman, Knight, and Santana. It gives Straw some decent protection with Carter, instead of subbing in Hojo behind him. Really puts him in a spot to drive in Dykstra/Mookie after they get those left hits to short. Overall not leaps and bounds better, but obviously ana improvement early in the order.
Cardinals. Just swap out Clark and Herr. Getting Clark in the 3rd spot sets up a similar situation as the Mets. Coleman and Smith can get singles probably as much as anyone on the team. Neither Lindeman or McGee are very good, but Lindeman is really no threat to homer ahead of Clark. Walking the slow footed Jack sets up for an easy put out at 2nd from McGee, with more inferior bats coming up next.
My theory is that if/when Vince or Ozzie gets on it might make the decision to walk Clark a little harder. Especially if Jack can come up with less than 2 outs. Pena probably needs to move up to the #7 spot as well.
Tigers....lots of ways to go here. The predominant idea is to get Brookens and Lemon higher in the order. I like the idea of Lemon batting 3rd, Evans 4th with more RBI possibilities, and Brookens providing the protection. Otherwise, keep Evans 3rd after the potent combo of Trammel and Gibson, then rock Brookens and Lemon to really power pack the top 4 of the order. You could round out the bottom with Nokes, Herndon(subbed out with Madlock) and then Whitaker giving Detroit a nice lefty, righty, lefty to finish out the order. Regardless, I think Detroit stands the most to gain with a few changes as any team in the game.
Are we also considering the guys who get subbed for, and who you might bring in? For teams that have consistently good subs (basically everyone except maybe the Twins), that changes things, too - for example, you might want to throw Spike Owen in the leadoff spot to get Burks in that position, while he's the obvious 8 or 9 hitter if you have to leave him in. Lots of teams would see their crappier players move up in the order in a scheme like that.
Quote from: BeefMaster on 04/17/13, 10:15:17 AM
Are we also considering the guys who get subbed for, and who you might bring in? For teams that have consistently good subs (basically everyone except maybe the Twins), that changes things, too - for example, you might want to throw Spike Owen in the leadoff spot to get Burks in that position, while he's the obvious 8 or 9 hitter if you have to leave him in. Lots of teams would see their crappier players move up in the order in a scheme like that.
Yes. Owen at the top us a great example.
In that case, here's my attempt at the Cards:
Coleman
Smith
Clark
Ford (sub for Lindeman)
McGee
Pendleton
Herr
Pena
Herr is ahead of Pena because you can sub him out for Morris, and if you leave him in the 8 hole he'll just get IBB'd his first time up and waste the PH bonus. If you leave him in and save Morris to hit for the pitcher in a clutch spot, then he and Pena should switch.
Twins:
Puckett
Hrbek
Gaetti
Brunanski
Laudner
Gagne
Lombardozzi (sub for Bush)
Gladden