I'm starting the Joe Torre Fan Club!

[warrick95]

Torre's impressing me. Look at his lineup today.

SS Derek Jeter
CF Bernie Williams
1B Jason Giambi
3B Aaron Boone
LF Hideki Matsui
RF Ruben Sierra
2B Alfonso Soriano
C John Flaherty
DH Todd Zeile (Karim Garcia PR)

As an Aaron Boone owner, I'm happy. However, he isn't taking advantage and is 0/4 with 1 RBI. Oh well. I suppose Torre isn't gonna use this lineup (Posada is benched), but I'll hope.

[Madison]

Gotta be a one time fluke. Sorry, but I just don't see Aaron Boone hitting cleanup for the Yankees this year. Lol.

[warrick95]

Yep, I know. Boone doesn't cut it as the cleanup man. I was happy to see it today, though

I actually think Jeter's a better leadoff man than Soriano. His OBP is .396, compared to Soriano's .329. Sure, Soriano's got more speed, but I think it's important for the Yankees to get the runner on board, first. Jeter isn't stealing all that much this year, but it'd make sense to me if that was because of his injury. He's fine for 30 SBs normally. Williams/Matsui would actually make sense at the 2 spot. I think Soriano/Boone out of the #2 spot would be decent, followed by Williams, Giambi, Matsui. I've always wondered why Torre doesn't put Giambi at cleanup. Matsui's proved to be a good clutch hitter and fits well at the 5 spot. For now, I'd bat Soriano 6th (Boone 2nd, flip them when Soriano gets in the swing of things again), Posada 7th, and finally Johnson/Garcia.

[blankman]

I've always wondered why Torre doesn't put Giambi at cleanup.

It is a common misperception that teams should have their best power hitter hitting cleanup. I don't know if you have this misperception, but some people do.

In reality, teams typically want to have their best overall hitter hitting 3rd with their second best hitter hitting 4th to protect the best hitter. Giambi is definately the best hitter in the Yankee lineup, so he bats 3rd and Bernie Williams has been the 2nd best hitter for awhile, so he generally hits 4th. With Bernie behind him, Giambi often gets better pitches to hit and when he doesn't get good pitches, he has the confidence in Bernie to walk.