March 5 - Insights From Today's Lineup and Game Results

 LINEUP

Interesting lineup today.  Let's dive in.

Francona has shown himself to be an innovator (think Andrew Miller in 2016) and an if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it guy.  His lineup today seems like the latter. Yet there are still intersting components to it.

• Kwan leading off against the left-hander Baumgartner.  Although we all knew it already, Francona again is saying that Kwan is his leadoff hitter against all comers this season.
• Rosario hitting 2nd.  Again, using the latter approach, Rosario hit second last year and is in that spot again.
• Ramirez hitting 3rd.  Not only is this carved in stone, it gives Francona a chance to see the dynamic of Bell hitting after Ramirez.  Does it offer Ramirez protection, is it a productive pairing leading to runs?
• Bell hitting 4th.  See Ramirez above.  More on this in another post about the lineup and DP balls.
• Gimenez hitting 5th.  This seems a natural spot for him to keep us able to alternate L-R hitters
• Zunino hitting 6th.  If he gets going he could offer protection for Gimenez at 5 and be a good separator between Gimenez and Naylor to keep the L-R thing alternating.
• David Fry hitting 7th.  With a lefty starting, the first inkling of what they might do to keep Naylor off the field.  The fact that they want to look at Fry there and not go with what they did last year (Arias) is also interesting.  Maybe reading too much into this but I am thinking that it will be 2 of Arias, Freeman and Fry on the opening day roster.  Fry at 1B for Naylor against lefties plays, IMHO.  The only reason to keep Arias and Freeeman is if Arias plays 1B against lefties.  
• Pries hitting 8th.  An odd choice against the lefty Baumgartner but you could just as easily imagine Gonzalez there during the regular season.
• Straw hitting 9th - Where he will be a lot during the regular season.

Analysis - OK, we have our first potential platoon lineup, this one against lefties.  Remember that Gonzalez played yesterday so maybe was held out because of that.  If this was the regular season my lineup would have been

Kwan

Rosario

Ramirez

Gonzalez

Bell

Gimenez

Zunino

Fry

Straw

If a righty was starting my lineup would be

Kwan

Gimenez

Ramirez

Naylor

Bell

Brennan

Zunino

Rosario

Straw

More on this later.

MARCH 5th GAME

Back up the salt truck!   You have got to take spring training results with a grain of salt and we have lots of results that take lots of grains.  So let's get started:

Josh Bell - He is 2-13 this year.  His hit today was a groundball down the left field line.  He also grounded out, grounded into a double play and struck out swinging.  Grain of salt time: He has 4 groundballs (one a hit), 2 flyballs, 1 BB, 1 lineout and 5 Ks, all swinging, so far.  If I wasn't inundated with salt I would say his performance is reminiscent of Bobby Bradley.  

McKenzie - An outing to forget with 3 walks without getting destroyed.  Dustin Knight, Diehl and Barager pitched as we sorted through our low level minor league free agents signings...agan.

Again, no one with more than one hit.  Fry with 2 Ks and 1 BB when given a chance to start. 

Well, on to tomorrow when I hope we can leave the salt truck parked in the driveway.