Adam Dunn watches a spring home run, and hopes to see many more during the regular season. Photo: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports
The series on team offense continues with the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox finished seventh in the majors and fourth in the American League in 2012 with 4.62 runs scored per game.
The CBSSports.com projected lineup that Robin Ventura may use is plugged into the Lineup Analysis Tool (LAT) using Musings Marcels as the batter projections. That information produces the following results:
- Best lineup: 4.78
- Probable lineup: 4.74
- Worst lineup: 4.53
- Regressed lineup: 4.41
As the stats populated the LAT, I started thinking, “This looks like a near perfect lineup.” My only thought was to flip Tyler Flowers and Gordon Beckham in the eight and nine slots, giving the higher OBP Flowers the chance to set the table for the top of the lineup. In fact, Ventura’s lineup for these nine captures most of what the best lineup has to offer. If you click through to the spread sheet linked below, you’ll see a calculation for percentage of the best lineup. The probable here stands at 83.5%. Most managers get their batting order somewhere in the 60% range.
On top of that, there is upside to this lineup. Adam Dunn‘s poor 2011 still pulls down his projections. We’ve been waiting forever for Gordon Beckham to break out, and this may be the season. Dayan Viciedo plays as a 24-year-old, so he is still maturing as a hitter. Yes, there is some age in the lineup, but I would not be surprised if the White Sox hitters did better than expected.
You can follow the data for the series in this Google spreadsheet.
Previous posts in the series:
- Introduction
- Texas Rangers
- New York Yankees
- Milwaukee Brewers
- Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
- St. Louis Cardinals
- Colorado Rockies
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