Leyland offers look at lineup
posted in 2007 ST |Detroit beat Cleveland, 5-4, which was the least interesting occurrence Thursday.
Detroit’s lineup, which featured Granderson leading off, followed by Polonco, Sheffield, Guillen (fourth!) and Magglio as the top five of the order was pretty shocking — and good to see. Presumably this was one of the six possible lineups Knobler says Leyland is still toying with for use during the regular season. I really like seeing Guillen cleanup, especially tucked between Sheffield and Ordonez. So long as Sheff is his old self, I think this gives the Tigers one of the top meat-of-the-orders in the American League, which pretty much means all over baseball. Throw the three in any order and it’s pretty good. But putting Guillen — Detroit’s best batter — fourth rather than fifth gets him some extra at-bats. The only other possible suggestion would be to slide them up so they’re second-through-fourth and each get a couple more at-bats that way. But as it is, it’s pretty good.
Pudge, Casey, Monroe and Inge round out the bottom four. Opposing pitchers will get a slight respite there, but Monroe and Inge could crank one at any time.
Leyland also said Pudge will lead off against some lefties, as he has done often throughout Spring Training. I’d say that sounds like a good idea and helps protect Granderson some.
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