raiders_umpire wrote:Syfo-Dyas wrote:
The idea of Pena hitting in the 2nd freaks me out.
A .380 OBP should not be freaking you out. I don't think Maddon will do a lineup with Pena 2nd, but realistically it could work. The worse thing about a Upton, Pena, Longoria, Burrell, Crawford top 5 is the slow Burrell right in front of Crawford more then Pena hitting 2nd.
Why did I say that?
If Upton hitting 1st and Pena 2nd we are looking at Crawford way down the order. If he hits behind Burrell he'll lose plenty of SBs, which could force him lower, that results in lot less ABs, as if he'd hit 1st or 2nd.
But lets see how the lineup with Pena in the 2nd looks like:
1 - cant be Craword or Iwamura cause Pena is a leftie too, so that leaves Upton.
2 - Pena
3 - Longoria
4 - Burrell
5 - Crawford
So we just lost the speed of Crawford, put the rigthy Burrell behind the righty Longoria, and lost plenty of productivity of Pena's power.
To use Crawfords speed he should move to 6th. Not something anyone has in mind when thinkin Crawfords abilities.
And this way some of Uptons power will be wasted, which would've been ideal in the 2nd slot.
Still this could be a good lineup vs lefties.
Ideally I like Crawford in the 1st or 2nd spot. But the problem is his inability to hit lefties, his low onbase, and the others in the lineup are too good.
Putting the line-up together.
I always start with the best, and I beleive we can agree that Longoria is a lock in the 3rd spot.
Than a natural powerguy 4th. Pena or Burrell. Pretty good lefty-righty combo so they are hitting after the other, unless Pena's high onbase shoud force somthing else. If they are 4th and 5th, the fact that Burrell is righty, puts Pena into 4th.
Still nothings written in stone here.
Now 1st and 2nd. They should be high on base guys with speed and power too. Upton, Crawford, and Pena are candidates. The problem starts here. Crawfords on base is low, Pena can't run but has great power which would be wasted here. So ideally Upton goes into the 2nd slot
1 Crawford
2 Upton
3 Longoria
4 Pena
5 Burrell
looks good but vs lefties with CC 1st it's not.
The other solution could be:
1 Upton
2 Crawford
3 Longoria
4 Pena
5 Burrell
What we lose here is some of the productivity of Uptons power.
But Crawfords speed could be utilized better, he could get better pitches with someone on base, forcing the pitcher into stretch, and the others could be hitting in their best spots, while keeping the R-L-R-L-R in order.
And with the lefty Iwamura in the 9th, Upton is better suited to follow than Crawford.
If Iwamura would hit 1st, that could move Upton into 2nd, but that would move Crawford again into 6th or 7th. Not good, but could happen if Craword is slumping.
With a completely different approach, an another solution could be
1 Iwamura
2 Upton
3 Pena
4 Longoria
5 Crawford
6 Burrell
Burrells move down wouldnt hurt much, but this would put Crawford into a run producing situation he is not expected to excell. He hit 7 HRs and 26 doubles in 550 at bats the last 3 years combined in the 3rd spot.
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