Sunday I wrote a post about the statistical impact of the Astros' lineups. McTaggart went one better, noting that the Astros used 115 different lineups last season - that's a lot. Here's what McTaggart says the lineup should be:
1. Matsui
2. Bourn
3. Berkman
4. Lee
5. Pence
6. Tejada
7. Boone/Blum
8. Quintero/Hall
This is what I put...
#1 - Kaz Matsui
#2 - Michael Bourn
#3 - Miguel Tejada
#4 - Lance Berkman
#5 - Carlos Lee
#6 - Hunter Pence
#7 - Aaron Boone
#8 - Humberto Quintero
McTaggart basically puts Tejada 7th and slides everyone else up from there. Given Tejada's likely decline in this, his 35th year on earth, I would tend to agree (but again, I was looking simply at 2008 numbers). With a middle of the lineup that reads Berkman, Lee, Pence, Tejada - that's not a bad lineup - especially with everybody protecting each other. Matsui gets on base, Bourn only hit into three double plays last year, Berkman is protected by Lee, who sees some good pitches because of Pence hitting behind him.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
