Stop Complaining About Lineups

Tweeting your concerns with the starting lineups is a waste of time.

I try to be as active on Twitter as I can. Of course, as far as baseball goes, I’m mostly involved with “Yankees Twitter,” as it is called, and I’m interacting with other Yankee fans while we all, essentially, watch the games together. It’s a lot of fun!

The one thing that is not fun, that I’m sure all fan bases experience, is the constant complaining and bickering about the starting lineup before every game. The Yankees have played 44 games, and for 44 games there have been complaints about the lineup.

I’m just not sure what people are thinking when they complain about the lineups. Well-run franchises do not operate based on what their fans want fay-to-day. Any lineup thrown out there is going to be disliked by somebody, so why would they care what the fans think at all.

Moreover, the lineup changes every single day. What team has ever trotted out the same starting nine for 162 games? The answer is none, because that is insane. Injuries take place, trades happen, people go through slumps, or they just want to try a different arrangement.

Take the Yankees’ matchup against the Kansas City Royals on Sunday, for example. This was the lineup they used against lanky LHP Eric Skoglund:

LF Brett Gardner
RF Aaron Judge
DH Giancarlo Stanton
CF Aaron Hicks
1B Tyler Austin
3B Miguel Andujar
C Austin Romine
SS Ronald Torreyes
2B Gleyber Torres

Look, it’s not the lineup I would have gone with either, but the Yankees are smarter than me and smarter than all of the fans complaining about the lineups day in and day out. I’d have loved to see Didi Gregorius get back out there after sitting on Saturday. I hate seeing Gary not get to DH when he isn’t catching.

The Yankees have obviously thought about this more than we do.

Didi is in a massive slump, and he didn’t look any better on Friday night after the Yankees pretty much had a week off (they played half a game on Tuesday against the Nationals while having off Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday) So they decided to just give him the full weekend to reset. Enter Ronald Torreyes, who had two hits the night before in place of Gregorius.

Sanchez was never going to catch the day game after a night game. Additionally, Sonny Gray was on the mound Sunday afternoon, and they have liked pairing him with Austin Romine for almost a month now. This was always Romine’s game to catch.

“Why not put Giancarlo in left and DH Gary Sanchez, then?” you might be asking. The answer is this: Brett Gardner needs to play. Gardner had played in one game since Sunday. The Yankees were off Monday; Gardner was sitting in the rain-shortened game against the Nationals; Wednesday was rained out; Thursday was a scheduled off day; Gardner played Friday night against the Royals (went 1-5); and sat Saturday against the lefty Danny Duffy.

Had Gardner sat Sunday, he would have played in one game in seven days. That’s not something that the Yankees would do to one of their starters. They decided that getting him the start against a softer-throwing lefty in Skoglund was worth the slight platoon disadvantage offensively. While Stanton’s defense—in left field—has been fine, we should not forget that Gardner is an elite defender; he’s been a Gold Glove candidate for several years in a row.

Giving Gary Sanchez a full day off is also not a bad idea, even if he doesn’t necessarily feel he needs the day off. Getting your catcher an off day in a May 20 game that will likely prove inconsequential come the season’s end means he’ll be able to play more games behind the plate down the stretch.

Additionally, one of the biggest complaints was about Aaron Hicks batting cleanup. Even Hicks himself admitted that he’s never batted in the fourth spot before. People were confused and angry. The thing is, look at the players who were playing that day. Of Hicks, Tyler Austin, Miguel Andujar, Romine, Torreyes, and Gleyber Torres, who did people want batting fourth? Maybe Austin? I think if they did that, people would have just complained about Austin batting fourth. There was no correct answer. Perhaps the solution would have been to slide Hicks in the 3-hole between Judge and Stanton, but I’m not sure that would have actually drawn less ire from Yankees Twitter. And, like I said before, well-run teams do not care what their fans think about silly things like the starting lineup in a game in May.

Finally, Joe Maddon is probably the most popular manager in baseball by fans. I guess part of that is his zany nature, but from a baseball standpoint, doesn’t everyone like the fact that he is willing to experiment with the lineups? It seems like he never does the same one twice. So let’s let Boone experiment a little bit while the games don’t matter as much, because, come October, you’re going to want to have the best lineup possible out there.

I also do not believe lineup spots matter too much, personally. As long as you’re getting your best players as many at bats as you can, I think it’s good to go. Once it goes around once, whoever was batting second or seventh doesn’t even really matter. It behooves teams to balance talent as much as they can throughout the lineup, and teams as talented as the Yankees can really do that! This Yankees team is so talented that when they are healthy (with Greg Bird), I really think you or I could pick the lineup out of a hat and it would be fantastic.

The only ‘rules’ Ihave for the lineup would be as follows:

  • Judge, Stanton, Sanchez, and Didi are all batting somewhere in spots 1-6
  • Gardner does not bat anywhere from 3-5
  • Andujar doesn’t bat first or second

For all the complaining that took place before this game, the Yankees clocked four homers and won the game 10-1. It proved to be the right move. Please stop complaining about the lineups every day.

Featured image via: Wikimedia Commons

I am a direct product of the 1996 World Series Championship. I love talking about the Yankees, Knicks, Giants, or just about anything else! Feel free to follow me on Twitter (@BigBabyDavid_) and Instagram (@bigbabydavid)

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