Predicting the Lineup

Predicting the St. Louis Cardinals line-up next year can be rather easy or hard no matter which way you look at it. There’s a new manager in Mike Matheny and even though, yes, he did play under manager emeritus Tony La Russa, we don’t know whether pitchers will be hitting in the 8th hole or the 9th hole. One thing for sure, no pitcher will be batting clean-up or anywhere else in the heart of the line-up.

Excluding Allen Craig, who will be out for the start of the season, I’m doing a stab at predicting the line-up against both right-handed and left-handed pitching. I’m certain that Matheny will give players a day off every few games. I don’t think any manager in the right mind would play someone every single day of the season unless they have a consecutive game streak going on.

The other thing that ought to be factored in is whether Matheny opts to platoon players like his predecessor did. Skip Schumaker fits into a platoon situation. He’s a guy that can play second base or spell one of the three outfielders.

Here’s a lineup that I can see Matheny filling out when the Cardinals face a right-handed pitcher:
Rafael Furcal (SS)
Carlos Beltran (RF)
Matt Holliday (LF)
Lance Berkman (1B)
David Freese (3B)
Yadier Molina (C)
Daniel Descalso (2B)
Jon Jay (CF)
Pitcher’s spot

Against left-handed pitching, one has to factor in the splits against the southpaw pitchers. I considered placing Skip in center field before realizing that Jon Jay had a better average against left-handed pitching last season. When predicting the lineup against lefties, I also kept in mind that Allen Craig would be out for a month.

Rafael Furcal (SS)
Carlos Beltran (RF)
Matt Holliday (LF)
Lance Berkman (1B)
David Freese (3B)
Yadier Molina (C)
Daniel Descalso (2B)
Jon Jay (CF)
Pitcher’s spot

Readers, what kind of lineups do you see against RHP and LHP?

You can ‘Like’ Redbird Rants on Facebook here. You can follow Redbird Rants on Twitter at @FSRedbirdRants and Daniel Solzman on twitter at @DSolzman.