Adrian Beltre” width=”220″ height=”316″ class=”size-full wp-image-91649″ /> Adrian Beltre projects to be the Rangers best hitter. Photo: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY SportsThe series on team offense starts with the Texas Rangers. Texas led the majors in 2012 with 4.99 runs scored per game. It was the first season since 1992 in which a team failed to score at least 5.0 runs per game.
The CBSSports.com projected lineup that Ron Washington will use is plugged into the Lineup Analysis Tool (LAT) using Musings Marcels as the batter projections. That information produces the following results:
- Best lineup: 5.22
- Probable lineup: 5.11
- Worst lineup: 4.90
- Regressed lineup: 4.67
Washington goes with a fairly standard lineup. His middle infielders do a good job of getting on base, so he uses them in the leadoff spots. He uses his most powerful hitter, Adrian Beltre, fourth, and the LAT agrees with Ron on that. The tool would rather see the highest project OBPs at the top of the order however, Lance Berkman and David Murphy. That would mean giving up speed, at the top of the order, something managers don’t like to do.
The one change I would make to Washington’s lineup if I had a say would be to swap Mitch Moreland and Leonys Martin, at least until Leonys proves he can get on base. He did so in the minors. If the Marcel proves to be an underestimation, then he’s in a good spot ninth as another leadoff hitter.
This is a very balanced team so it is tough to select a bad lineup. Given the fire power on the Angels, however, the team could use that extra 0.1 runs a game.
You can follow the data for the series in this Google spreadsheet.
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