What do you want the 2020 starting line up to be

[Stradling]

Hey, as we deal with the reality of the cause of Skaggs death, I figured maybe we can use the distraction of getting back to talking about some baseball.  What would you like the starting line up to be next year, assuming we don’t really add any significant offensive free agents.  I will give it a crack.

Fletcher-3rd

Trout- CF

Ohtani- DH

Upton- LF

Adell- RF

La Stella- 1st

Simmons- SS

Smith- C

Rengifo- 2nd

With a bench of Goodwin, Thiass, Albert, Walsh and Stassi. 

[tdawg87]

I expect this to be an awesome thread.

[Claude]

11 minutes ago, Baghdad Strad said:

Fletcher-3rd

Trout- CF

Ohtani- DH

Goodwin- LF

Calhoun- RF

La Stella- 2B

Simmons- SS

Smith- C

Thiass- 1B

With a bench of Upton, , Albert, Walsh, Stassi and someone new. 

 

[Stradling]

2 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

I expect this to be an awesome thread.

Yea, if the actual people who would like to see them do well posted it has a chance of being good, but my guess is we will have the Melvins of the world posting, because some people are only happy when they are miserable.  

[tdawg87]

I'll go with something different:

Rengifo 2B

Trout CF

Ohtani DH

Upton LF

Pujols 1B

Fletcher 3B

Simmons SS

Smith C

Goodwin RF

Stassi Benchth

 

[Claude]

[fan_since79]

Fletcher 3B

Trout CF

Ohtani DH

Goodwin LF

La Stella 2B

Adell RF

Thaiss 1B

Smith C

Simmons SS

 

Albert can DH when Ohtani is pitching and also platoon at 1st base. Bench of Rengifo, Upton, Walsh, and Stassi

[totdprods]

If we don’t add any FAs, I’m gonna guess:

Fletcher 3B, Trout CF, Ohtani DH, Upton LF, Pujols 1B, La Stella 2B, Simmons SS, Goodwin/Adell RF, Stassi C - with Rengifo and Cozart as UT IF, Thaiss 1B/3B, Hermosillo OF, Smith C. 

Part of me still sees a fairly unique route where Eppler banks more on our young SPs than we expect, ignores the mid-tier SP entirely, signs Cole or a similar top arm (only Cole, Ryu, Bumgarner, maybe Wheeler apply) trades for an arm using our IF depth, and then signs a vet IF to help - either as significant as Donaldson, or as minimal as Forsythe, Kendrick, Walker - depending on the quantity and quality of IF depth we give up (and salary spent on pitching). I just don’t think he’s gonna risk clogging payroll or rotation with a bunch of FA arms, nor be able to go into 2020 with all this IF depth, especially since Jones and Rojas are almost assured to be protected and join the depth. 

Ward, Rojas, Walsh, Thaiss, Rengifo, Jones, Fletcher, Simmons, La Stella, Cozart, Pujols is wonderfully excessive. Someone’s getting traded, especially when our outfield is also rich.

Edited August 31, 2019 by totdprods

[fan_since79]

I certainly hope we don't see weeks and weeks of Cozart at third base and hitting in the low .100's. No more of that please! No more automatic outs in the lineup! 

We need reliable, consistent offense and a couple of veteran starting pitchers to shore up this dreadful rotation. No more seasons of falling behind and struggling to remain in the second wild card hunt. Sick and tired of it! 

And maybe find a catcher who can actually hit whose name is not Stassi.

[Blarg]

Fletcher 3B

La Stella/Rengigo 2B

Trout CF

Ohtani DH

Upton LF

Pujols 1B

Goodwin/Adell RF

Smith C

Simmons SS

 

I do not like Trout batting 2nd no matter what analytics claim. I think he is being cheated out of opportunities to drive in runs. I also have no faith in Thaiss' ability to hit at the MLB level so he really isn't on my 25 man roster. 

Goodwin should start in right field until Adell is definetly ready to take over. This may be settled in spring training but I'm guessing Adell is in the fall league to work on skills that he us lacking. 

Rengifo is a wildcard. If he keeps advancing his skill set and becomes a true leadoff hitter he could push LaStella off the field or platooning with Fletcher. 

[angelsnationtalk]

Assuming no moves:

Opening Day:        End of year:

Fletcher 3B          Fletcher 3B

Trout CF               Adell RF

Ohtani DH            Trout CF

Upton LF              Ohtani DH

Pujols 1B             Upton LF

Simmons SS       Simmons SS

Goodwin RF        Pujols 1B

LaStella 2B          Stassi C

Stassi C               LaStella 2B

[tdawg87]

Upton isn't getting paid 21 million to be on the bench. Yes, he has sucked this year. I get it. But you are kidding yourselves if you think he's not starting in LF in 2020.

And if you prefer Goodwin (I'll get to that in a moment), he may be starting in RF next year anyway.

Btw, Goodwin has a .360 BABIP and is only batting .284. That implies a ton of luck and he's still batting well under .300. Upton's BABIP is .261, well below his career average. 

[Claude]

5 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

Upton isn't getting paid 21 million to be on the bench. Yes, he has sucked this year. I get it. But you are kidding yourselves if you think he's not starting in LF in 2020.

And if you prefer Goodwin (I'll get to that in a moment), he may be starting in RF next year anyway.

Btw, Goodwin has a .360 BABIP and is only batting .284. That implies a ton of luck and he's still batting well under .300. Upton's BABIP is .261, well below his career average. 

Upton is toast. His offense has been declining for a couple of seasons. His defense is below average also. Big mistake by Eppler. Vernon Wells 2.0

[fan_since79]

I'd rather Upton be paid $21 million to sit on the bench than to be an automatic out in the lineup, not to mention his pretty awful defense. 

 

[tdawg87]

[tdawg87]

1 minute ago, fan_since79 said:

I'd rather Upton be paid $21 million to sit on the bench than to be an automatic out in the lineup, not to mention his pretty awful defense. 

 

Goodwin is not better defensively. They're both absolutely awful in the field. 

I won't bother trying to convince you that Upton will have a better 2020 than Goodwin. But he will. I would bet Cals left nut over it.

[St1ck]

Trout 1B

Trout CF

Trout 2B

Trout 3B

Trout RF

Ohtani DH

Trout SS

Trout LF

Trout 3B

[Docwaukee]

10 minutes ago, Blarg said:

Fletcher 3B

La Stella/Rengigo 2B

Trout CF

Ohtani DH

Upton LF

Pujols 1B

Goodwin/Adell RF

Smith C

Simmons SS

 

I do not like Trout batting 2nd no matter what analytics claim. I think he is being cheated out of opportunities to drive in runs. I also have no faith in Thaiss' ability to hit at the MLB level so he really isn't on my 25 man roster. 

Goodwin should start in right field until Adell is definetly ready to take over. This may be settled in spring training but I'm guessing Adell is in the fall league to work on skills that he us lacking. 

Rengifo is a wildcard. If he keeps advancing his skill set and becomes a true leadoff hitter he could push LaStella off the field or platooning with Fletcher. 

Trout leads the team in runners on base seen for his plate appearances.  He is walked too much to be a true 'RBI' guy unless he changes his approach which we don't want him to do.  Granted the numbers might be skewed a bit because whoever bats behind Trout would likely have the most RBI opportunities.  But Trout can't bat behind Trout.  My point is that it doesn't really matter.  As long as the guys in front of him get on base, it doesn't matter where he bats.  Might as well get him a few extra PA by batting him second.  I'm personally not married to him batting 2nd just because saber folks think he should.  I just don't think moving him has a material impact because he's just not a guy who puts the ball in play a ton.  

[totdprods]

36 minutes ago, fan_since79 said:

I certainly hope we don't see weeks and weeks of Cozart at third base and hitting in the low .100's. No more of that please! No more automatic outs in the lineup! 

We need reliable, consistent offense and a couple of veteran starting pitchers to shore up this dreadful rotation. No more seasons of falling behind and struggling to remain in the second wild card hunt. Sick and tired of it! 

And maybe find a catcher who can actually hit whose name is not Stassi.

I'd be very surprised if Cozart is anything more than a defensive replacement UT IF next season, if he even sticks. If he is getting playing time over the others, it means he's raking, they're sucking, or there are injuries. He wasn't even starting before he went out injured.

And I don't mind Stassi at catcher if the rest of the line-up can hit, and it should. I'd like to see what Stassi does next year at the plate too, after he gets an offseason to work on whatever is being suggested to him, especially since he's admitted he needs a totally new approach. Reed and Wooten have done good work with other projects.

[Claude]

52 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

Goodwin is not better defensively. They're both absolutely awful in the field. 

I won't bother trying to convince you that Upton will have a better 2020 than Goodwin. But he will. I would bet Cals left nut over it.

Upton will continue to be debated until his contract expires. Players decline, it happens and there’s not much they can do about it. I’m pretty sure Eppler regrets this one but it is what it is. 

[Vlad27Trout27]

With Ohtani                                                                                      W/O Ohtani

Flect 3b                                                                                              Flect

Trout Cf                                                                                             trout

Ohtani DH                                                                                         La Stella

La Stella (if he can repeat) 1st                                                      Upton

Upton Lf                                                                                            Pujols

Goodwin Rf                                                                                       Goodwin

Simmons SS                                                                                     Simmons

Renigfo 2b                                                                                         rengifo

C                                                                                                          C

[Chuck]

1 hour ago, st1ckboy said:

Trout 1B

Trout CF

Trout 2B

Trout 3B

Trout RF

Ohtani DH

Trout SS

Trout LF

Trout 3B

Woah, a @st1ckboy appearance. 

Welcome back dude. How have you been?

[St1ck]

3 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

Woah, a @st1ckboy appearance. 

Welcome back dude. How have you been?

Much better, now that I have escaped from @Tank's attic. 

[tdawg87]

Just now, st1ckboy said:

Much better, now that I have escaped from @Tank's attic. 

That place reeks hard of cucumbers.

[BackUpTheTruck]

Fletcher 3B

Simmons SS

Trout CF

Ohtani DH

Adell RF

La Stella 2B

Upton/Goodwin LF

Pujols 1B

Smith C