Lineup construction

[Bobhead]

Do you alternate righties and lefties? Do you pile on all the hitters you have of the opposite hand (to the pitcher)?

Pitcher 8th or 9th?

Speed at the top? Or do you just lead with your best hitters?

Share your general lineup strategy here.

[countryboy]

Re: Lineup construction

I do typically bat Mark Reynolds for Matt Adams when a lefty is on the mound. And I do not load the line of oppo-handed hitters of the pitcher. I bat the pitcher 9th and I lead off with Carpenter who is my best hitter. Reason being, the only true time that a lead off hitter (speedy hitter) is going to be guaranteed to lead off an inning is the 1st. After that, there are no guarantees. So I'd rather have a guy who sees a lot of pitches, can hit without issue with 2 strikes and is a solid contact hitter. Because then if the 8th place hitter gets on to lead off an inning, then the pitcher bunts him over, and then I have my best pure hitter with an opportunity to drive him in.

If your speediest hitter leads off but is a bad hitter, then you're likely to lead off the game with an out, instead of putting pressure on the opposing pitcher.

[Jr.]

Re: Lineup construction

Good thread idea. I've been following Maddon's philosophy and hitting the pitcher 8th. I like having my best hitter in the 2 hole as it gets him and another great hitter to the plate in the 1st inning, and with a decent hitter in the 9 hole, he gets a lot of RBI opportunities, too.

I try not to have platoons, but I will if I need to. I actually platooned Arismendy Alcantara and Dexter Fowler in center field because their splits were oppositely good/bad. Had Dexter against lefties and Alcantara against righties.

I also try to keep from having more than 2 lefties in a row in my lineup.

[NYJin2011tm]

Re: Lineup construction

I lead off my fastest guy, 2nd I bat my best contact hitter that has a little power, 3rd I bat my best contact/power combo hitter. Clean up and on done by power.Always bat pitcher 9th.


I generally start season with my 8 position starters playing against lefties and righties. As the season goes on usually a month into season I start subbing guys out if they are not hitting against the same(for example lefty hitter vs lefty pitcher...)

[Trent Booty]

Re: Lineup construction

My lineup this season, usually:

CF Austin Jackson
RF Seth Smith
2B Cano
DH Cruz
3B Seager
1B Morrison
C Zunino
SS Brad Miller
LF Ackley

When the pitcher hits I make Cruz play RF and Smith plays LF. Ackley is taken out and I bat the pitcher 8th and Miller 9th. I've done that forever.

[KBLover]

Re: Lineup construction

For me:

Contact/OBP to start things off. Speed a plus, but optional. I prefer Contact and PVis. If they have power, I'm more apt to bat them 6th, though Yelich is sitting second in defiance of this 'rule' (he has 96 contact/67 power vs RHP).

The middle is where I stack the power rating. Contact optional, though high contact will move a guy up to #3/#4 instead of #5 or #6. My best overall hitter is usually batting 3rd. That's Davis vs RHP (80-something, 99 Power) and Stanton (90 contact/99 power vs LHP). They flip-flop #3/#4 based on LHP or RHP.

#5/#6 usually is where I'll put the 50/70 types. They have power so they can pick up XBH with runners on, but not consistent enough to be the centerpieces in the lineup.

#7/#8 is back to contact/OBP, trying to get runners on for the pitcher to bunt or maybe just get him to the plate and out of the way. In a DH lineup #9 might be another 50/70 type.

I do try to stay away from a lot of LHB or RHB in a row if it's doable without violating too much of the above "rules". Right now, my vs RHP lineup is R, L, L, R, R, S, R, L - so a couple places where there's consecutive same-handed batters, but no more than 2 in a row (unless I'm throwing a LHP as starter, then #8/#9 will be consecutive LHB - though I have thought about switching 8/9 based on if I have a LHP or RHP starting...and since it's Solano and Moyer/Cruz - all of them the same basic type of hitter, it wouldn't alter the "rules" above).

With speed, I'll stick it anywhere. Matt Baldwin is my fastest player (95/99) and he's batting 5th because of his contact/power. The speed just falls where it does, even if it's not kosher for base stealing - but speed has more importance for me than that (defense/range and triples).

Since I do a lot of influencing to try to simulate/emulate groundball/flyball hitter tendencies, I try not to keep a lot of ground ball types together. I usually consider most guys with low power to be groundball types (though with fictionals or players with little irl data on fangraphs or the like, I randomize it, like Chris Taylor ended up being a flyball type with 27 power... thanks a lot RNG). I try to alternate it so the high BABIP types (grounder/linedrive) have a chance to get on for the high run value types (flyballs lower BABIP but do the damaging hits if they are good hitters).

Bench is usually made up of versatile defenders with and good decent contact and high PVis. Guys that can come up with a single/double in key spots with low chances of striking out.

[forme95]

Re: Lineup construction

I generally will put speed 1 and 2. Consistant hitter 3 and a power hitter @ 4,5,6. 7 and 8, I will use for new bats or for guys struggling, and 9 is reserved for the pitcher or 2ndary speed guy. So typically for the Indians, it will look like this of sorts.

2B Kipnis
SS Ramirez or Lindor (when I bring him up)
LF Brantley
RF Moss
C Gomes
1B Santana
3B Chisenhall
DH Swisher/Murphy/Rayburn
CF Bourne

[TheWarmWind]

Re: Lineup construction

I play in the AL so my lineups aren't as interesting as they could be. Usually I try to build a lineup like so:

1. Speed
2. Contact
3. Player with the most offensive tools on team
4. Best Power hitter
5. Power
6. ...
7. ...
8. ...
9. Worst hitter

Sometimes I'll try the dual lineup, like so:

1. Speed
2. Contact
3. Player with most offensive tools on team
4. Power
5. Power
6. Speed
7. Contact
8. Power
9. Speed or Contact

[franch1se]

Re: Lineup construction

My lineup, just at the trade deadline

Vs LHP

SS Jose Reyes
C Derek Norris
RF Matt Kemp
LF Justin Upton
1B Wil Myers
3B Will Middlebrooks
2B Jedd Gyorko
CF Melvin Upton

VS RHP

SS Jose Reyes
C Derek Norris
RF Matt Kemp
LF Justin Upton
CF Wil Myers
1B Yonder Alonso
3B Will Middlebrooks
2B Jedd Gyorko or Cory Spangenberg

Norris is hitting .276, 14 HR, 72 RBI
Kemp .300 25 HR, 82 RBI
Upton .297 27 HR 90 RBI
Myers .305 20 HR 80 RBI

I wish this was happening IRL

[Bobhead]

Re: Lineup construction

Interesting responses. I've always platooned my lesser guys (I use the Mets, basically with last year's roster). I have Dan Murph, Duda, Wil Flores, Jed Lowrie, and Dilson Herrera as my infield. I'm basically picking my best 4 for the day depending on the pitcher and remaining energy levels. Usually, it's Jed Lowrie, Herrera, or Flores taking a seat on the bench.

In the LF, I platoon between Eric Young Jr, Matt DenDekker, and Torii Hunter, depending on the pitcher and the rest of my lineup (eg: I'm more inclined to play Hunter if Duda or Granderson are sitting and I need another solid bat).

I've also clung very tight to the alternating of LHB and RHB.

My typical LHP lineup is:

CF - Juan Lagares (R)
1B - Daniel Murphy (L)
2B - Dilson Herrerra (R)
RF - Curtis Granderson (L)
C - Travis D'Arnaud (R)
SS - Jed Lowrie (S)
3B - Wilmer Flores (R)
Pitcher
LF - Eric Young Jr or Torii Hunter (S/R)

That leaves a bench with Lucas Duda, Matt Dendekker, Eric Young or Torii, Eric Campbell, and my back-up catcher Anthony Recker.

Against RHP...

SS - Jed Lowrie
3B - Daniel Murphy
2B - Dilson Herrera
RF - Curtis Granderson
C - Travis D'Arnaud
1B - Lucas Duda
CF - Juan Lagares
Pitcher
LF - Matt DenDekker

I will definitely have to try experimenting with non-platoons and consecutive RHBs or LHBs, it's just always seemed like a taboo to me, I've never tried deviating from it.

I'm a virtual Tony La Russa, lol.

(David Wright is on the DL with a multi-month injury)

[32MJ32]

Re: Lineup construction

I'm much like the consensus - contact and speed early, power middle, and if possible, more contact and speed late. I've found the best way to mitigate hitting into double plays is to steal 2nd as much as possible

This is a pretty obvious one, but sometimes it's the obvious things we can miss:

If you have a DH, pay ZERO attention to his overall rating. It factors in fielding and arm stats which don't apply. You're much better off playing a 70-rated dude with great hitting stats than an 85-rated dude who has 99 for his arm or whatever. You can really find some value - both in the free agent pool and on the trading block - for top DH's with average overall ratings

[calbrs04]

Re: Lineup construction

Since I use the Giants, I basically keep it to the same lineup that they use in real life:

LF- Aoki
2b- Panik
3b- Duffy
C- Posey
RF- Pence
1b- Belt
SS- Crawford
CF- Pagan
P

I prefer to have Pagan batting 8th since he is a solid contact hitter. Also if he gets on base, I can have him steal and then bunt him over to third with the pitcher.

When playing at a AL park I usually have Posey as the DH and Susac hit 9th.

[rjackson]

Re: Lineup construction

I pay attention to having balance in the line-up as far as handedness but player ratings are typically more important to me versus the handedness of the pitcher. I do like to have a #2 hitter to be right-handed and have a little pop, though. This is because if my 9 hitter or lead-off are on first, the pitchers get a little more predictable in their approach of the hitter. I get a good amount of 2-run HR's this way. Also, I prefer a high-contact see many pitches type at lead-off rather than just someone with speed. I will run but my team doesn't have much speed and I like that hole created when 1B has to hold the runner.

[TonyMoraco]

Re: Lineup construction

Great thread!

[mrsaito]

Re: Lineup construction

As far as the lefty / righty thing goes I look at the batter's ratings when making out the lineup. At that juncture you know what hand the opposing starting pitcher is and your player's ratings are based on that rather than overall.

I also stress defense over offense (within reason) for SS and CF.