AL Lineup Analysis (5/16/19)

by
May 16, 2019

Angels

Astros

  • The league’s steadiest lineup took a hit when Altuve went on the IL. Everyone else moved up a spot with Aledmys Diaz taking over at second base and batting 6th.


Athletics

Blue Jays

  • Generally, it contains the same players. The one weird item is Brandon Drury keeps finding ways into the lineup. even though he’s hit .174.208/.174 over the past two weeks and has a .246 OBP on the season. (Note: And I guess he’ll keep playing since Teoscar Hernandez was demoted today.)
  • Someone names Jonathan Davis has started three of the last five games in center field. He was hitting (.306/.493/.633) before getting called up from Triple-A.
  • Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has hit second in the last five games.

Indians

  • Oscar Mercado hit sixth and played left field last night after being promoted.
  • Jason Kipnis has entrenched himself into the two hole after hitting .238/.319/.381 over the past two weeks. Yes, this lineup still sucks.
  • In the last two games, Carlos Santana is hitting third and Jose Ramirez fifth.
  • Jordon Luplow (.280/.339/.560) has started five straight games in right field.

Mariners

You Aren't a FanGraphs Member
It looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed.
We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member.
1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other.
2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off.
3. Dark mode and Classic mode!
4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them.
5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects.
6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn't sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.)
7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only.
8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don't be a victim of FOMO.
9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members.
10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features!
We hope you'll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we've also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn't want to overdo it.
  • The lineup has been in flux because of injuries, promotions, and demotions.
  • With Dee Gordon hurt, Shed Long has played second three of the last five games with Tim Beckham playing in the other two. During the same time, J.P. Crawford has started four of five games and hit second against righty starters.
  • Jay Bruce has started in 10 of the last 11 games.
  • Mallex Smith (.165/.255/.247) has been promoted to replace Shed Long (.000/.182/.000) so Dee Gordon might be healthy.

Orioles

  • Sigh … at least I don’t have to look at the Marlins. Send your prayers to Al since he has to analyze their sad ass lineups once a week.
  • Hanser Alberto (.262/.271/.330) has started eight of the last ten games.
  • Renato Nunez has only started in four the last eight games with Chris Davis heating up (.255/.339/.491 over the past 28 days).
  • Stevie Wilkerson and Joey Richard are splitting time in center field.

Rangers

  • This lineup is loaded with bats and still not enough spots to go around even with Delino DeShields being demoted and Elvis Andrus on the IL. One option would be to demote Rougned Odor (.493 OPS) since he has two options left. I’m sure that move would not go over well with ownership since the team owes him ~$40M over the next 3+ seasons.
  • In his first game with the team, Willie Calhoun hit second as the DH. Hunter Pence’s at-bats will take a hit since Calhoun is only a DH and Pence was the DH in four of the five games before Calhoun’s promotion.

Rays

  • It’s still two platoon lineups but only the order is getting changed around. Ji-Man Choi has been in the lineup against the last two lefties. With Nathaniel Lowe in the minors, he doesn’t have a platoon partner.
  • Kevin Kiermaier (.220/.288/.371) has sat against two of the last three lefty starters.

Red Sox

Royals

Tigers

  • The bottom half is a mess.
  • Jeimer Candelario (.192/.285/.288) has been demoted and Niko Goodrum as taken over batting leadoff. I wonder if Goodrum’s stolen bases will go up now that he is batting first vice fourth. He’s never attempted a stolen base from the leadoff spot.
  • Christin Stewart is batting second against righties.
  • Josh Harrison is off of the IL, playing second base, and batting 6th or 7th.

Twins

  • The lineup has been as steady as can be for three weeks but has been turmoil the last few days with Nelson Cruz out with a sore wrist. Also, Miguel Sano should be joining the team after being on the IL to start the season.
  • Willians Astudillo has started the last four games at catcher, DH, or third base (twice).
  • Ehire Adrianza (.177/.297/.290) has started five of the last six playing second, short, and third.

White Sox

  • There is a lot going on here since the promotion of Charlie Tilson who has started nine straight games. It’s tough to see who will head to the bench since Leury Garcia has been dealing with some back issues. In the four games (all vs RHP), Garcia (played second once) and Tilson started all four while Ryan Cordell (.732 OPS) sat twice and Nicky Delmonico (.576 OPS) sat once. It’ll be interesting to see if Yonder Alonso (.625 OPS) and Yolmer Sanchez (.596 OPS) start losing playing time.
  • Yoan Moncada (.289/.349/.528) has cemented himself into batting first or second.
  • When starting, James McCann is batting fifth.

Yankees

  • I have no idea right now. The team has played two games since sending Miguel Andujar to the IL, getting Aaron Hicks back from the IL, and signing Kendrys Morales. To make matters more confusing, the two games were a doubleheader.
  • The outfield is a little crowded. While Mike Tauchman (.716 OPS) and Cameron Maybin (.842) are likely headed to the bench, they are both hitting better than Brett Gardner (.677 OPS).





 

Jeff, one of the authors of the fantasy baseball guide,The Process, writes for RotoGraphs, The Hardball Times, Rotowire, Baseball America, and BaseballHQ. He has been nominated for two SABR Analytics Research Award for Contemporary Analysis and won it in 2013 in tandem with Bill Petti. He has won four FSWA Awards including on for his Mining the News series. He's won Tout Wars three times, LABR twice, and got his first NFBC Main Event win in 2021. Follow him on Twitter @jeffwzimmerman.

3 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
AnonMember since 2025
6 years ago

With Buxton finally seeming to become the hitter everyone thought he might be and Kepler scuffling, how long do you figure before Buxton gets moved to leadoff and Kepler bumped to probably 6th? I figure we are within days myself. . . . .

1