Just cause I feel like posting it: 1. Gordon 6 (650) 2. Ellis 2 (770) 3. Kemp 9 (920) 4. Ethier 7 (860) 5. Loney 3 (760) 6. Uribe 5 (740) 7. Ellis 4 (730) 8. Gwynn 8 (660) 9. Pitcher And bring back Kuroda for 10M, and (please?) Bedard for 5-7M. Kershaw/Bills/Kuroda/Lilly/Bedard Good staff, Bills is set for a significant bounce back season, as are Ethier and Uribe on the offensive side of things. Not that I expect this to happen, but putting Gwynn's range in center and shifting Kemp's big arm to right would do wonders for the outfield D. Gwynn, Kemp, Ethier, M. Ellis, Loney, and Uribe would all figure to be plus defenders. It's not an amazing team, but I think it could contend for this division. In parentheses are my rough predictions for OPS.
Expensive pine and Sands is chicken liver? Consider the possible outfielders based on playing time and performance last year. 1. Kemp 2. Eithier 3. Rivera 4. Sands 5. Gwynn Since Rivera is also a right handed 1B bat he can spell Loney. Do we sit the young Sands? Send him down to the minors and let him ????????? Have Rivera as a 4.5 million bench player or is this what we roll with? Is it possible that one of the five will not be in the equation come opening day and who might that be?
I would do something very similar, except instead of Bedard for 7 I'd sign Doumit for 4 and Bartolo Colon for 3, and I'd bat Gwynn 1st and Dee 8th, and let Doumit do what Napoli did, 60 games at C, 40 at 1B.
I think Kuroda could be had for cheaper, with more deffered. If I were going to retire and set sail to Japan, I'd want some guaranteed US money from 2013-2015 So yeah, maybe its 10 million but maybe its only like 5-6 million on actual payroll in 2012, with a1-2 million deferred every year after
I hope the (2) next to the first Ellis on that lineup is a typo, cuz if not we'll have a new Russell Martin experiment of batting the C 2nd just because of his OBP. One of the reasons Ellis has a good OBP is because he's hitting in front of the pitcher, so they dont care to walk him. he sure has patience, but I dont know how effective he'll be if pitchers are more aggressive against him. Sands is not ready yet, further proven by his mediocre performance playing in Dominican Republic (72 ABs, .250/.325/.375, 2 HR, 12 RBI, 7 BB, 20 K). Rivera will get the opportunity to produce and in case he fails, then Sands will get the call. I would bat Ethier 3rd, as he is the most natural hitter on the team, and with a healed knee, Gordon always on base and Kemp behind him, he should get a lot of pitches to work with. On the pitching, I think Kuroda could come back for $10M and Eovaldi should be good enough to cover the 5th spot. My opening day lineup would look like this. Gordon M Ellis Ethier Kemp Rivera Loney Uribe AJ Ellis P
Thats false, the #8 hitter in the MLB has one of the lowest OBPs and although most of it is due to that slot having your shittiest hitter. I don't know how true this is, but its also believed that the #8 hitter should NOT get walked a lot cause when he is walked, he is basically always at 2nd base due to a bunt, OR it means you turn your lineup over. I'm not saying Ellis is going to OBP .380 all the time, but I wouldnt say his OBP is a fluke because of being in the 8 hole Nothing wrong with putting him in the 2 spot, just cause Mark Ellis is a short scrappy veteran doesn't mean he has to hit 2nd.
its bad to hit AJ 2nd because of 2 main reasons: 1. You dont want you catcher to have more extra ABs. You run a bigger risk of wearing him out. 2. As AJ wont be a full time catcher, they you would be switching M Ellis from 2nd to 8th almost every other day. That isnt good for the lineup either.
Ah, good points right there. As fucked up as it sounds though, I don't really care if we get the most out of AJ for two years and in three years he "declines" just cause hes already 30 so yeah haha
Let me fucking repeat. On a team that has actual players (1-8), Ethier is the PERFECT 2 hitter. On the Dodgers...yeah.
not sure I agree with you there SDF, and its not common that I dont agree with you... I expect Mark to be better than the terrible year he had last year so his OBP should be adequate. In case he hits like crap, then I would be more willing to try the AJ experiment than moving Ethier, unless you decide to go with virtually no 2nd bat and move everyone up a spot (Ethier 2nd, Kemp 3rd, Rivera 4th, Loney, Uribe, AJ, Mark). That could work at the top, but as we are stating as a given that Mark is not hitting (and if he cant hit in front of Ethier, he wont do it in the 8th spot), then the bottom of the lineup will have 2 automatic outs wating all possible good OBP AJ might have. This is the exact example of everyone carrying its own weight. If Mark is not capable of filling the 2nd spot requirement, we are better off benching him (even though that wont happen).
I understand your point. I am not a huge M. Ellis fan but think if he can probably work as a number 2. I just have a huge issue with his career OBP numbers. If we are comparing he and AJ, I have to go with AJ for the 2 spot. Dre' should be there but we have no bat to protect Kemp....and no, Rivera is NOT that bat. This is why I think Beltran would be a perfect grab for 3 years. Hell, if you grabbed Betran, you could move him to the 3 hole and let Kemp protect him. Or, if you wanted to go crazy, you could put Kemp 2, Beltran 3, Dre' 4. That would allow Kemp to steal more bases and let Andre receive the Manny fastball treatment again.
Right now if we get Beltran it means that Dre is a gonner... our best option is for Loney to regain some of his old stroke and move him to the 2 spot. The only issue with that is that it would be odd to have Dee/Loney/Dre (L/L/L), so it would push Kemp to 3 and Dre to 4. But then again, it would leave Mark down in the order, which I'm not happy with...
Either way, it all comes down to not having enough good players. We have to shuffle the lineup around to make it look even decent.
in a lineup where you have only 2 25-30 a year homerun threats you dont put 1 of them in the 2 spot.Put Dre in the 3 spot. If somehow we trade or sign a big bat then bat dre 2 or 5
I see a lot of thought and creativity in these lineup posts...although I don't hold too much hope in acquiring any other "big bats" to make a huge difference in the offense, unfortunately. Lots banking on Andre and Uribe having at least some kinda offensive output. But some of the lineups are genuinely interesting and make sense. However, what may be escaping some of the faithful, is that (no matter how snuggly he has become because of the late season surge), DBB is a JoTo clone, and 162 different lineups are quite possible. Maybe even probable. OK, I'm exaggerating...158 lineups.
giving catchers more shit to think about - bad thing top of the order hitters need to run and tire their legs and for catchers - bad thing just let aj sit back there if he is up with no outs and earns a walk then the pitcher can try to sacrifice him over or just get an out and hopefully have a leadoff hitter who gets on base and now you have something going either its one or two outs but at least one guy is on base and your #3 hitter is guaranteed a shot at bringing in a quick run small ball style thats how the dodgers played when i was a kid