The 2018 series on team offense continues with the Oakland Athletics. The Athletics finished seventeenth in the major leagues and ninth in the American League in 2017 with 4.56 runs scored per game.
I am using RotoChamp as a source of default lineups. That Bob Melvin order is plugged into the Lineup Analysis Tool (LAT) using Musings Marcels as the batter projections. That information produces the following results (Runs per game):
Best lineup: 5.20
Probable lineup: 5.06
Worst lineup: 4.94
Regressed lineup: 4.64
The default Oakland lineup captures just 46% of the best lineup, the only lineup below 50% so far. The main reason is that the LAT places planned lead-off hitter Marcus Semien eighth, and planned number two hitter Matt Joyce seventh. It sees the Oakland table setters as among the weaker hitters in the team.
Like the Orioles (see link below), the Athletics are hoping that Semien lives up to his improved OBP from 2017. Semien will be playing his age 27 season, so he should be at the top of his game. Matching Semien’s .325 OBP of last season, however, does not move him out of the eight slot in the lineup. Basically, the default lineup is a bit upside down. Given the Athletics fame as number crunchers, this is a bit surprising. It’s also possible they know something the LAT and Marcels don’t.
The good news is that if the players live up to these projections, the team will score many more runs in 2018. A full season of Matt Olson certainly should benefit the Athletics. Only five teams so far are poised to at a higher rate from their default lineup. If the A’s get decent pitching, they could contend for a playoff slot this season. Finding a better batting order could not hurt.
You can follow the data for the series in this Google spreadsheet.
Help support this series and the LAT by donating to the Baseball Musings Pledge Drive.
Previous posts in this series:
- Introduction
- Houston Astros
- New York Yankees
- Colorado Rockies
- Chicago Cubs
- Washington Nationals
- Cleveland Indians
- Minnesota Twins
- Arizona Diamondbacks
- Texas Rangers
- Boston Red Sox
- Miami Marlins
- Los Angeles Dodgers
- St. Louis Cardinals
- Cincinnati Reds
- Seattle Mariners
- Baltimore Orioles
from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2pa8MOu
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