Seriously, Fix the Lineup

By EJ Fagan On May 17, 2011 · 8 Comments · In Player Analysis

The Yankees aren’t scoring runs. They’ve lost 6 straight games. At some point, Girardi needs to shake things up. He doesn’t have control over everything – he can’t force a team to trade a hitter to the Yankees – but he does have control over the lineup that he writes down every day. That lineup doesn’t make the biggest difference in the world every day, but it could easily make the difference between winning a few extra games every year and not.

Derek Jeter is going to be in the Yankee lineup for some time now. He’s hitting just well enough right now to equal an average AL shortstop – they’re that terrible – but certainly not well enough to justify leading off. The lead off hitter is important – he gets the most plate appearances (#1 hitters will get more than 100 at bats more than #9 hitters over the whole season) on the team and gets on base in front of the Yankees top power hitters. When you throw away those at-bats with one of your worst hitters, you cost your teams runs.

In the past year or so, the argument against moving Derek Jeter down in the lineup has been, basically, that he’s got too much pride and garners too much respect to make it happen. I’ve never bought this argument – the Posada situation shows how quickly these things calm down – and I think that at some point, you get desperate enough to put down the best possible lineup. After the horrible two weeks that we’ve had, I think this is one of the “desperate enough” moments. Jeter can whine and complain all he wants. The Yankees should still put the best lineup down.

What is that lineup? I have three suggestions:

Each one has its appeals. Personally, I understand the argument for a L/R stagger (preventing opposition bullpens from squaring off against your platoon splits easily), but I think it is overrated. I regard the unbalanced lineup as the best pseudo-realistic lineup of the three (Alex Rodriguez gets bumped out of cleanup, but he’s still in a pretty good spot), but I also recognize that Gardner and Granderson make a tempting target for opposition LOOGYs. The solution to that problem is probably Andruw Jones off the bench.

Why consistently bat Nick Swisher 7th? Its really just a personal preference. Unlike Jeter and Posada, Swisher is still in the prime of his career. He’s slumping, and may need some serious fixing from Kevin Long, but its hard to believe that he’ll be a .600 OPS hitter for most of the season. It could happen, but I don’t think its likely. Posada and Jeter, on the other hand, are meeting reasonable expectations. A lot of this is personal preference, for example where to place Arod, Granderson, etc. If you were Girardi, what lineup would you take?

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8 Responses to Seriously, Fix the Lineup

  1. Larry@IIATMS says:
    May 17, 2011 at 1:41 pm

    Must you? Batting order changes during a slump are Titanic deck chair rearrangements. Yet there seems to be a widespread impression that if Jeter would only move himself to the ninth spot (another impression: that Jeter himself makes out the lineups), the team would instantly morph into the 1927 version.

    Jeter’s got the 4th best wOBA and wRC+ in May of the nine players you’ve mentioned, so why do you have him hitting ninth? I agree with Gardner first, but why Jeter ninth? Are you one of those who bats the worst hitter 8th? Even so, how is Jeter the second-worst hitter in your mind at this point? A-Rod has the worst wOBA in May of the nine you’ve mentioned, by far, at .231; why do you have him hitting no lower than 6th?

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  2. Joe G says:
    May 17, 2011 at 1:47 pm

    I’m hoping jeter’s defense of his friend Jorge on the lineup move isn’t his way of saying to Girardi that he’ll cause a stink if he’s demoted too.

    I’ve always been a Jeter fan but I really wish we had just offered him arbitration and said our goodbyes after this season. It’d be much easier to offer Reyes a long term contract if you didn’t have over 40 million still owed to Jeter after 2011.

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  3. Cris Pengiuci says:
    May 17, 2011 at 1:50 pm

    I think I’m more in favor of the balanced order, since Granderson is hitting so well. It’s a tough call in my mind whether he or Cano is the best hitter on the team, and I like Granderson’s power better in the 3rd slot. Or perhaps you could also move Cano to the 4 slot and Teix to the 5 hole (although that gets away from the balanced lineup). Since it’ll still be a little while till Jeter moves to the 9 hole (although management is clearly letting him know his time is limited based on how they’re handling the Posada situation), if you move Swisher to the 2 slot (he’s still getting on base fairly well too), you could move Martin down and have Jeter hit behind ARod.

    I’d be amazed if the Yankees do anything drastic, especially after they scored 10 runs in the past 2 games), but agree, with all the slumping plaers, something needs to be done.

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  4. Frank says:
    May 17, 2011 at 2:39 pm

    Considering the heated contract extension with Jeter this off-season, coupled with this past weekend’s drama with Posada, there is no way in the world Jeter will be relegated to 9th in the lineup. It’s just not happening.

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  5. Ben Vinutti says:
    May 17, 2011 at 2:54 pm

    I like the balanced lineup but for the sake of peace in the clubhouse, and for the sake of preserving his legs, I would move Martin to 7, Jeter to 2 and Swisher to 9 (unless/until he starts to hit again, at which point I switch Swisher and Martin again).

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  6. oldpep says:
    May 17, 2011 at 3:05 pm

    I think putting a hitter at the DH spot would do more to fix the line-up than anything else the manager/GM can do. We have a perfect storm for bringing up Montero, but seem unwilling to do so.

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    bornwithpinstripes Reply:
    May 17th, 2011 at 3:23 pm

    bring montero bat him eighth..cano third..tex fifth.call up an outfielder from AAA. sit swing and misser.bat him ninth. cervelli to AAA, posada to the pay window and a gold watch

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  7. UYF1950 says:
    May 17, 2011 at 4:43 pm

    The problem or solution for the Yankees isn’t to move Posada and Swisher around in the batting order. The solution is to sit them for a while. Having them anywhere in the batting order right now gives the opposing team virtually 2 automatic outs. The Yankees need to inject new blood into the order. Call up Montero and let him DH and part time catch as needed and put Jones in right field for the next week or so. Posada is done, stick a fork in him both he and the Yankees need to recognize and accept that.
    Getting to the question though I like the “unbalanced lineup” with 2 tweaks take out Swisher and replace him with Jones (temporarily) and insert Montero in place of Posada (permanently).

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