March 23, 2014

Team Offense, San Diego Padres

The series on team offense continues with the San Diego Padres. The Padres finished twenty fourth in the majors and twelfth in the National League in 2013 with 3.81 runs scored per game.

The CBSSports.com projected lineup that Bud Black may use is plugged into the Lineup Analysis Tool (LAT) using Musings Marcels as the batter projections. For the pitchers, the actual stats for the Padres in 2013 were used. That information produces the following results:

  • Best lineup: 4.46
  • Probable lineup: 4.28
  • Worst lineup: 3.92
  • Regressed lineup: 4.05

The one thing that strikes me as out of character for the Padres line-up is Will Venable batting second. In his career, Venable never displayed an ability to get on base, and as he crosses the barrier into his 30’s, that’s not likely to get better. He did show a surge in power in 2013, which would be more useful lower in the lineup. I did notice Chase Headley batting second a few games ago, so maybe that is where the Padres are headed. In fact, removing Venable and moving the players up a slot would give San Diego a sequence of Everth Cabrera, Chase Headley, Carlos Quentin, Yonder Alonso, Jedd Gyorko, and Seth Smith, which the LAT likes a lot. The Padres have a decent chance of performing better offensively in 2014.

You can follow the data for the series in this Google spreadsheet.

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