Lineup construction

[Bobhead]

Do you alternate righties and lefties? Do you pile on all the hitters you have of the opposite hand (to the pitcher)?

Pitcher 8th or 9th?

Speed at the top? Or do you just lead with your best hitters?

Share your general lineup strategy here.

[countryboy]

I do typically bat Mark Reynolds for Matt Adams when a lefty is on the mound. And I do not load the line of oppo-handed hitters of the pitcher. I bat the pitcher 9th and I lead off with Carpenter who is my best hitter. Reason being, the only true time that a lead off hitter (speedy hitter) is going to be guaranteed to lead off an inning is the 1st. After that, there are no guarantees. So I'd rather have a guy who sees a lot of pitches, can hit without issue with 2 strikes and is a solid contact hitter. Because then if the 8th place hitter gets on to lead off an inning, then the pitcher bunts him over, and then I have my best pure hitter with an opportunity to drive him in.

If your speediest hitter leads off but is a bad hitter, then you're likely to lead off the game with an out, instead of putting pressure on the opposing pitcher.

[Jr.]

Good thread idea. I've been following Maddon's philosophy and hitting the pitcher 8th. I like having my best hitter in the 2 hole as it gets him and another great hitter to the plate in the 1st inning, and with a decent hitter in the 9 hole, he gets a lot of RBI opportunities, too.

I try not to have platoons, but I will if I need to. I actually platooned Arismendy Alcantara and Dexter Fowler in center field because their splits were oppositely good/bad. Had Dexter against lefties and Alcantara against righties.

I also try to keep from having more than 2 lefties in a row in my lineup.

[NYJin2011tm]

I lead off my fastest guy, 2nd I bat my best contact hitter that has a little power, 3rd I bat my best contact/power combo hitter. Clean up and on done by power.Always bat pitcher 9th.


I generally start season with my 8 position starters playing against lefties and righties. As the season goes on usually a month into season I start subbing guys out if they are not hitting against the same(for example lefty hitter vs lefty pitcher...)

[Trent Booty]

My lineup this season, usually:

CF Austin Jackson
RF Seth Smith
2B Cano
DH Cruz
3B Seager
1B Morrison
C Zunino
SS Brad Miller
LF Ackley

When the pitcher hits I make Cruz play RF and Smith plays LF. Ackley is taken out and I bat the pitcher 8th and Miller 9th. I've done that forever.

[KBLover]

For me:

Contact/OBP to start things off. Speed a plus, but optional. I prefer Contact and PVis. If they have power, I'm more apt to bat them 6th, though Yelich is sitting second in defiance of this 'rule' (he has 96 contact/67 power vs RHP).

The middle is where I stack the power rating. Contact optional, though high contact will move a guy up to #3/#4 instead of #5 or #6. My best overall hitter is usually batting 3rd. That's Davis vs RHP (80-something, 99 Power) and Stanton (90 contact/99 power vs LHP). They flip-flop #3/#4 based on LHP or RHP.

#5/#6 usually is where I'll put the 50/70 types. They have power so they can pick up XBH with runners on, but not consistent enough to be the centerpieces in the lineup.

#7/#8 is back to contact/OBP, trying to get runners on for the pitcher to bunt or maybe just get him to the plate and out of the way. In a DH lineup #9 might be another 50/70 type.

I do try to stay away from a lot of LHB or RHB in a row if it's doable without violating too much of the above "rules". Right now, my vs RHP lineup is R, L, L, R, R, S, R, L - so a couple places where there's consecutive same-handed batters, but no more than 2 in a row (unless I'm throwing a LHP as starter, then #8/#9 will be consecutive LHB - though I have thought about switching 8/9 based on if I have a LHP or RHP starting...and since it's Solano and Moyer/Cruz - all of them the same basic type of hitter, it wouldn't alter the "rules" above).

With speed, I'll stick it anywhere. Matt Baldwin is my fastest player (95/99) and he's batting 5th because of his contact/power. The speed just falls where it does, even if it's not kosher for base stealing - but speed has more importance for me than that (defense/range and triples).

Since I do a lot of influencing to try to simulate/emulate groundball/flyball hitter tendencies, I try not to keep a lot of ground ball types together. I usually consider most guys with low power to be groundball types (though with fictionals or players with little irl data on fangraphs or the like, I randomize it, like Chris Taylor ended up being a flyball type with 27 power... thanks a lot RNG). I try to alternate it so the high BABIP types (grounder/linedrive) have a chance to get on for the high run value types (flyballs lower BABIP but do the damaging hits if they are good hitters).

Bench is usually made up of versatile defenders with and good decent contact and high PVis. Guys that can come up with a single/double in key spots with low chances of striking out.

[forme95]

I generally will put speed 1 and 2. Consistant hitter 3 and a power hitter @ 4,5,6. 7 and 8, I will use for new bats or for guys struggling, and 9 is reserved for the pitcher or 2ndary speed guy. So typically for the Indians, it will look like this of sorts.

2B Kipnis
SS Ramirez or Lindor (when I bring him up)
LF Brantley
RF Moss
C Gomes
1B Santana
3B Chisenhall
DH Swisher/Murphy/Rayburn
CF Bourne

[TheWarmWind]

I play in the AL so my lineups aren't as interesting as they could be. Usually I try to build a lineup like so:

1. Speed
2. Contact
3. Player with the most offensive tools on team
4. Best Power hitter
5. Power
6. ...
7. ...
8. ...
9. Worst hitter

Sometimes I'll try the dual lineup, like so:

1. Speed
2. Contact
3. Player with most offensive tools on team
4. Power
5. Power
6. Speed
7. Contact
8. Power
9. Speed or Contact