Good lord. The best line-ups have Posada leading off and Jeter batting last! Something tells me Girardi isn't going to follow your line-up tool's advice, David.

Okay, but if you plug in Giambi's numbers instead of Teixiera's, the Yankees come out at 5.7 runs. The real number last year was 4.9. They still need Manny! (And Lowe!)

Statistics like that don't take into account the kind of luck the Yankees have had with players who sign huge contracts and disappoint only in proportion to the amount of money they get paid to play.

This sounds impressive, but actually, if you plug any phillies lineup from 2008 in that same runs generating algorithm webste there, it also produces 5.9 runs a game. So it's not so impressive.

i actually threw in a lineup without chase utley and with raul ibanez and with eric bruntlett playing second base, and so long as you have werth, victorino, feliz, ruiz, howard, dobbs and rollins, that lineup will produce just as many runs as the yankees new lineup.

if you throw utley in there it does better.

i won't mention that the phillies got ibanez actually by saving money, since burrell took a walk and ibanez costs them less than burrell. they're SAVING money and getting more offense than the yankees.

of course, the NL can only play 8 players, so they'll average slightly less runs, but the fact is that the best offense in baseball is the phillies, and on top of that, they were 3d in the NL in ERA.

the yanks have a ways to go to prove they'll be able to topple the reigning world champion philadelphia phillies, who have assembled one of the all time great baseball teams of history.

finally, if the red sox are smart enough to sign pat burrell as a dh, burrell will probably hit 40 homers against the monster in left field and another 40 doubles.

--art kyriazis, philly/south jersey
home of the world champion philadelphia phillies