Tonight’s Lineup

by ~ June 2nd, 2009 at 3:22 pm

Ichiro RF
Russell Branyan 1B
Adrian Beltre 3B
Ken Griffey Jr. DH
Jose Lopez 2B
Yuniesky Betancourt SS
Rob Johnson C
Endy Chavez LF
Franklin Gutierrez CF

Well that’s… interesting.

Wakamatsu now has his two best OBP guys at the top of the order, but who’s going to drive them in?  Having his worst three hitters 5-6-7 doesn’t help.

I think it’s time to bring Gutierrez back to the 2-hole.

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  • CT10

    How about we try Endy back at the lead off followed by Guti then Ichi, Junior and Branyan? After that Beltre then whatever. Beltre cannot hit in that 3rd spot especially when Ichiro is on base non stop right now. Beltre had two horrendous AB’s his first two trips to the dish last night. I don’t know what others think, I know a lot of people don’t like the idea of Ichiro not in the lead off spot but don’t forget how well Endy performed there back at the beginning of the year.

  • Slurve

    However Endy was off to the hottest start of his career and will probably never do that again.

    Now instead of having Ichiro getting on base at the start of the inning you have him getting on with2 outs probably. You move Ichiro to the 3 spot for RBI opportunities but he’s one of your best OBP guys and your best AVG guy as well so he’s leadoff for a while. Beltre has looked bad but hte results where there… Now he’s just unlucky this year on the balls put into play.

    Also changing the order of the players isn’t gonna change their performances at all so Ichiro to the 3 hole should just die…

    If you’re building a line up by the book by Tom Tango here’s a look thanks to Decatur:

    L (35) 1. RF Ichiro ~.340 wOBA (D +10)

    R (25) 6. 2B Jose Lopez ~.320 wOBA (D +0)

    L (39) 3. DH Ken Griffey Jr. ~.336 wOBA

    R (30) 4. 3B Adrian Beltre ~.338 wOBA (D +10)

    L (33) 5. 1B Russell Branyan ~.345 wOBA (D + 0)

    R (26) 2. CF Franklin Gutierrez ~.320 wOBA (D + 15)


    R (33) 7. Kenji Johjima C ~.306 wOBA (D ?)

    L (31) 8. LF Endy Chavez ~.305 wOBA (D +15)

    R (26) 9. SS Ronny Cedeno ~.305 wOBA (SS D + 0; 2B D +10)

    I kinda wish Clement was here though…

  • CT10

    Essentially in a way tonights line up is similar to what i proposed because endy and guti do hit before Ichi. However I do agree with what you’ve listed up there. Ichiro is just a fixture in the leadoff spot always has worked so no reason to change it. Just the make up of this team will forever allow us to score very few runs…

  • unitispat24

    Endy has an OB% of over .350 only once in his career, with the 05 Nationals, in only 9 at bats! Not really lead-off material. He did come close however in 06 with the Mets in 353 ab’s with a .348%. But I love what WAK is doing with the lineup tonight, I have not seen many games in the last 3 years (military) but he seems like the first one since Lou who owns a pair of his own $#@!. I could be wrong, but since Lou was here I have not felt this confident in a managers decision making; even if it turns out wrong. Remember he is a rookie, so to feel that way is saying allot. You have to motivate players, motivation is key. You tell Beltre, Lopez, Griffey (in no particular order) “Hey you have to drive in Ichiro and Russ tonight or we lose” and see what happens. Well it seems to have worked tonight with all three of our strugglers… I mean sluggers! I’ll drink to that WAK, good luck on your next move.

  • http://bleedingblueandteal.com Jon Shields

    Everyone please keep in mind that the Mariners were facing a rookie in his second career start and a string of terrible relievers.

  • http://bleedingblueandteal.com Dustin Shires

    I was fortunate enough to have people sitting around me that actually knew that Branyan was not ever meant to be a 2-hitter, nor Betanflail a 6-hitter…

    We has some good small-talk/conversation as to wtf Wakamatsu was doing…

  • Luisam911

    at least they didn’t make the Baltimore Orioles seem to have the best rotation and bullpen in all of baseball.

  • SABR Matt

    There is no reasonable justification for batting Branyan any lower than 4th. Batting him fifth is stupid given the lack of good table setters we have to put on base in front of him.

    RF) Ichiro
    CF) Gutierrez
    1B) Branyan
    2B) Lopez
    DH) Griffey
    3B) Beltre
    LF) Balentien
    C) Johnson
    SS) Betancourt

    is the line-up I’d favor.