Sunday, April 5, 2009

Pre-Opening Day Sundaze


A few things to take care of here on the dawn of the season. Firstly, a little rosterbation and/or lineup wankery. I'll post my dream lineup alongside Cito's probably Opening Day lineup, the one he's currently engraving in tablet until injury forces his hand.

Cito's Jays
  1. Marco Scutaro, SS
  2. Aaron Hill, 2B
  3. Alex Rios, RF
  4. Vernon Wells, CF
  5. Adam Lind, DH
  6. Scott Rolen, 3B
  7. Lyle Overbay, 1B
  8. Rod Barajas, C
  9. Travis Snider, LF
The Toronto Drew Jays
  1. Alex Rios, CF
  2. Adam Lind, DH
  3. Vernon Wells, LF
  4. Travis Snider, RF
  5. Scott Rolen, 3B
  6. Lyle Overbay, 1B
  7. Aaron Hill, 2B
  8. Rod Barajas, C
  9. Marco Scutaro, SS
Wow, that was much more difficult than I originally imagined. Despite my most earnest prayers, the Jays don't have a player like Grady Sizemore (pop, speed, and patience) for the top of the order. Am I overrating the ability to see pitches and get on base in the number one slot? Either way, I like Rios in that spot a lot more than Alex Rios does. I fought with myself to leave Hill second, but Adam Lind sees more pitches, hits left and doesn't quite have the power we all wish he did. Aaron Hill doesn't generally swing the bat at the top of the order as well as he does at the bottom, so I'll leave him there to do his thing. Travis Snider hits in the middle of the order because he will fuck you up like a bad accident, why hide him? Scott Rolen almost led off, but he's too awesome for that stigmatized lineup slot. Scutaro and Barajas get the fewest at bats because they're the worst hitters. It's just that simple.

Other Stuff for the Spring Christmas Eve

  • I hope this doesn't make me a racist, but I consider the four different black American baseball players that Baseball Daily Digest predicts to compete for Rookie of the Year honours in 2009 a good thing. Am I wrong? Am I racist? More diverse talent pool just makes for better on-field talent, so we the consumer win. Right? Racist!
  • Baseball Musings compiled the WAR (wins over replacement) totals for every team's lineup, rotation and closer. The Jays rank just above the Orioles with 29.3. The Yankees and Red Sox lead the way. Sigh, No Funeral.
  • I don't mind that Jeff Blair's proud of not watching Carter's home run, I deeply mind that he exchanged hard-earned currency to watch Madonna. Remember that next time he pimps Gaslight Anthem or something of that ilk.
  • I wrote a post for Walkoff Walk yesterday based on this post at Baseball Analysts. Championship Win Probability Added and Championship Leverage are enough to blow your mind and make you cry. The Jays "biggest" game of the year, the game with the highest level of importance relative to them making the playoffs took place on May 31st. Let's hope they can hold on until Victoria Day once again.

Finally, the season is about to start. What better way to kick off the 2009 baseball season than joining me at the Score for a live blog of Sunday's Phillies Braves lid-lifter. Everyone who reads this site or any like it believes we baseball fans are underserved (relatively) by the mainstream Canadian media outlets. If we can turn up en force for stuff like this, content producers and suits alike will recognize the breadth and intelligence of Canadian baseball fans and work harder to satisfy our nearly insatiable needs. It's worth a shot, worst case scenario you crack wise with me for a couple hours. What else were you doing on a Sunday night?

/shameless whoring.

8 comments:

  1. Dude, that is awesome! I wish I could be there but I made plans. I'll try and poke my head in at some point, though. Is it a text live blog or a chat? I'm changing my phone's browser today so hopefully I'll be able to do either.

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  2. I think any lineup without Scutaro batting lineup is a huge improvement. Gibby was onto something by putting Rios at the top.

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  3. I might flip Overbay and Lind, but they're about the same when they're hitting well, right?

    All in all, thumbs up to that lineup.

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  4. Speed is wasted at the top of the order. Guys who derive a significant part of their value from stealing bases should bat in front of hitters who can only hit singles. If Overbay's 2004-2006 power returns, I have Scutaro lead off against righties because his platoon splits were fairly flat last year. (I have a fanpost on BBB on this very topic.)

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  5. The only other place I put Scutaro is 2nd because he puts the bat on the ball so well. I also worry that Lind might be a ground ball machine in waiting.

    Thanks to everyone that came out to the liveblog!

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  6. You're not a racist, you're just moronic. Why do you care what color the players are? And how do more blacks make for better on-field talent anyway? Asinine.

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  7. Considering the league once featured 20% black players, a figure that has shrunk as low as 8% in recent years, a resurgence in people of all stripe choosing baseball as a career sounds encouraging to me.

    The more people playing baseball, the better the talent, no?

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