The series on team offense continues with the Toronto Blue Jays. The Jays finished for thirteenth in the majors and seventh in the American League in 2012 with 4.42 runs scored per game.
The CBSSports.com projected lineup that John Gibbons 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: 5.25
- Probable lineup: 5.19
- Worst lineup: 4.89
- Regressed lineup: 4.73
Gibbons pretty much nails the lineup, his probable lineup about 81% between the worst and best he could do. He gets lead-off, clean up and ninth right. If he batted Jose Bautista second he’d be even closer to perfect.
Jose Reyes and Edwin Encarnacion try to win a second championship this season, this time with the Blue Jays. Photo: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
As you look at the top 20 lineups, it becomes clear a number of the players are interchangeable. Jose Reyes, Melky Cabrera, and Brett Lawrie can swap spots without hurting the team much. If Bautista stays healthy, this order should put up some big numbers.
It’s tough to know, however, how much Melky Cabrera will contribute. He’ll present a nice test case as to what a player can accomplish with and (I assume) without PEDs.
I’ll also note that the worst lineup for this group of players projects to be better than the best lineup the Yankees can put on the field right now. That alone should sell more tickets in Toronto.
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
- Chicago White Sox
- Arizona Diamondbacks
- Boston Red Sox
- Washington Nationals
- Detroit Tigers
- San Francisco Giants
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