The 2020 series on team offense begins with the New York Yankees. The Yankees finished first in the majors in 2019 with 5.82 runs scored per game.
I am using RotoChamp as a source of default lineups. That Aaron Boone order is plugged into the Lineup Analysis Tool (LAT) using Musings Marcels as the batter projections. That information produces the following results (Runs per game):
- Best lineup: 5.63
- Probable lineup: 5.55
- Worst lineup: 5.36
- Regressed lineup: 4.96
The spread between the best and worst Yankees lineups is small, 0.27 runs. That means Boone can arrange his players any way he likes and still have a top-notch offense.
The interesting thing I see here is the bottom of the order, with Giovanny Urshela batting eighth and Mike Tauchman batting ninth. Many of the best scoring orders have Tauchman ninth. He projects to a good, but not great, OBP, perfect in front of the top of the order as they come around for a second pass. The LAT usually puts the worst hitter on the team eighth. In this case, that would be Brett Gardner. Urshela, however, gives the Yankees two good OBP candidates as opponents approach DJ LeMahieu and Aaron Judge. I kind of like that.
This lineup does not contain Giancarlo Stanton, who is injured again. Stanon projects to a .353 OBP and a .524 slugging percentage, so he would be an improvement over either Miguel Andujar or Tauchman in the lineup. There is upside to his order.
You can follow the data for the series in this Google spreadsheet.
Previous posts in this series: