If everyone is healthy and performing to expectations or at least past performance, Alvarez is batting 6th. He’s the new kid on the block. The other guys are Uncle Mike, the World Series MVP(possibly this year MVP) and 3 guys that can go off for MVP in any given season. Of course Alvarez may one day be that dude also..... He may already be. But anyways 1-6 are essentially interchangeable and that’s an incredible compliment to a 21year old that’s got 12 games under his belt. Pretty pumped to see this team at full strength.
Springer Bregman/Altuve Altuve/Bregman Brantley Correa (no way an MVP candidate when healthy hits sixth IMO) Alvarez Gurriel/Reddick (1B) Reddick/Tucker Chirinos
MY lineup for Playoffs G1: 1 2B - Altuve 2 LF - Brantley 3 3B - Bregman 4 CF - Springer 5 SS - Correa 6 DH - Yordan 7 1B - Yuli 8 C - Chirinos 9 RF - Reddick AJ's lineup for PO G1: 1 CF - Springer 2 2B - Altuve 3 3B - Bregman 4 LF - Brantley 5 SS - Correa 6 DH - Yordan 7 1B - Yuli 8 C - Chirinos 9 RF - Reddick
This is what I would vote for. Bregman as cleanup makes sense; he's got more power than Brantley who I expect to be getting more doubles to drive in Altuve and Springer. If Bregman walks as he is quite likely to do, Alvarez will clean that up. Correa should be no earlier than 6th. They had some success with him there last year. In no way does he just automatically get the cleanup or even 5 spot back with those 5 ahead of him, and I never liked him as cleanup anyway. The bottom third is your "who knows?" part of the lineup, which is more typical of any lineup. If we're going completely typical, I'd probably have Reddick at 6 or 7, but the Astros seem to like this pre-leadoff guy thing, which he could maybe handle. Man, if you have this lineup, and then you have everybody's heads in the game and work out the kinks that Yuli and Chirinos are experiencing, that's a scary lineup to face. Then again, the Astros are perfectly capable of finding a way to score 1 or fewer runs with this lineup completely healthy. We shall see.
Has Reddick every played first base? Considering how good he is in the field it would be more, can Tucker play first base? I don't think Tucker is going to be an everyday player for us this year. Gurriel is a very good 1b, can play 3b, and his hitting is coming around. Since they are keeping Tucker down during this time of injuries when he could be proving himself, they won't be able to get him enough playing time to trade proven veterans down the stretch.
Correa comes in batting 6th from injury. He has to earn the cleanup spot back. 3-4-5 will be some combo of Brantley-Bregman-Alvarez Likely Alvarez in the 5 hole because Brantley and Bregman rarely strikeout. I think Brantley bats 3rd to separate the back to back lefties in the lineup.
Turning a career OFer into an IFer would take an offseason and ST on a team with playoff aspirations. It's just a totally different world; much, much easier to move from the IF out.
With all the injuries over the last couple years I'm not sure how confident I am everyone will be healthy for a sustained period of time.
Agreed. I the people seem to think they can just automatically plug Reddick into first base. Also think clutchfans is much more down on Gurriel than the Astros. We are going to have to wait another year for Tucker unless there are injuries.
Springer R CF Altuve R 2B Alvarez L DH Bregman R 3B Brantley L LF Correa R SS Gurriel R 1B Reddick L RF Chirinos R C
Remember when they tried 1B with Tucker the Elder? He was voted the "best defensive 1B in the SEC" and other stuff his Sr year at Florida. That experiment with the Stros didn't last very long and he never made it into a MLB game at 1B. It's not an easy position to play. If you have the physical talent to play the OF well, all 3 of them are easier to play than any IF position.
