The 2018 series on team offense continues with the Washington Nationals. The Nationals finished fifth in the major leagues and third in the National League in 2017 with 5.06 runs scored per game.
I am using RotoChamp as a source of default lineups. That Dave Martinez order is plugged into the Lineup Analysis Tool (LAT) using Musings Marcels as the batter projections. For the pitchers slot, I used the actual values produced by the Cubs pitchers in 2017. That information produces the following results (Runs per game):
Best lineup: 5.09
Probable lineup: 4.88
Worst lineup: 4.42
Regressed lineup: 4.52
I like the Nationals default lineup. They put their best five hitters at the top of the order, building up to the heart where opponents will need to face Bryce Harper, Anthony Rendon, and Daniel Murphy. The lineup is not that deep, however, as OBP and power fall off in the next three hitters. The top five are so good, however, that Ryan Zimmerman and Matt Wieters should have plenty of RBI opportunities.
Note that the LAT likes Adam Eaton as the secondary lead-off hitter, batting ninth. That would certainly be rather innovative for the Nationals. Taking the default order and just shifting everyone up one slot so the pitcher is batting eighth should work very well.
For the Nationals, keeping Eaton, Trea Turner, and Bryce Harper healthy for the season probably matters more than the actual batting order. Getting Michael Taylor to realize his potential would be a big step as well.
You can follow the data for the series in this Google spreadsheet.
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Previous posts in this series:
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