I was appalled today to see Nick Punto in the 2 hole with Orlando Hudson on the bench. Sure, the Twins scored 6 runs, so my point doesn’t carry as much weight, but generally speaking, you want one of the best hitters on the team in that spot, to either advance the lead off man, or set the table for the big bats behind him. Nick Punto is not a good hitter, despite the two hits he had today.
Baseballmusings has an algorithm that takes the OBP and SLG of a player and compiles the most effective lineup, based on that lineup over the course of a season. I went with the longer statistical model (the other had Justin Morneau leading off). Here is the lineup it came up with, based on the post game stats:
Span
Morneau
Young
Mauer
Cuddyer
Punto (?!)
Harris
Ramos
Casilla.
The interesting thing is, for the most part, that players are about where they should be. The two most notable changes are Delmon Young moving up and Nick Punto moving down. Perhaps this is what Ron G should have considered? But wow… Punto 6th?
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