FanPost

Interleague Lineup (away)

The Cubs have six games in AL parks this year (three in New York and three at the Cell).  If I had my way, the lineup for those games would look like this:

  1. Hairston (DH)
  2. Walker
  3. Lee
  4. Ramirez
  5. Burnitz
  6. Dubois
  7. Patterson
  8. Perez
  9. Barrett
The reason that Hairston is the DH and not Walker ought to be obvious.

Unfortunately, I have this really bad feeling that we're going to see the following two lineups:

(vs. LHP)

  1. Hairston
  2. Perez
  3. Lee
  4. Ramirez
  5. Dubois
  6. Burnitz
  7. Patterson
  8. Barrett
  9. Hollandsworth
(or even worse, we'll see Hollandsworth in the 2-spot, with Perez 8th and Barrett 9th)

(vs. RHP)

  1. Perez
  2. Hollandsworth
  3. Lee
  4. Burnitz
  5. Ramirez
  6. Patterson
  7. Walker
  8. Dubois
  9. Barrett
The reason I am pessimistic about Dusty's lineups for these six games is that I know he's itching to get Hollandsworth in the game.  This will mean that he will use his tried-and-true lefty-righty matchup method to get either Walker or Hairston in the game.  Against righties, this sacrifices a leadoff hitter, and against lefties, this sacrifices Walker's bat, which I expect to continue roughly his pre-Carlos Lee output.

By the way, Walker seemed to do a decent job at the leadoff spot last year.  He's not a speedster, but his OBP this year is .389, and it was a decent .352 last year (and .370 in the leadoff spot).  So while I like Hairston at the head of the Cubs' lineup, I wouldn't be upset to lose him to a trade or anything.

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