The Phils Lineup Construction

Nothing like thinking about lineup construction in the middle of December,  huh?

Well, honestly, there are very few things that are more interesting to think about (at least to me), so why not turn off the NFL playoff scenario part of the brain and reroute it to the 2012 Phillies starting lineup.

And, though I think about that topic more often than I care to admit, Sam Donnellon actually proposed something in his column this morning that I had never thought about before and think is actually rather brilliant.

I have been saying – pretty much since the beginning of this blog’s existence – that Jimmy Rollins is a fantastic player, who is as important to this team as anyone on the roster…but clearly should NOT be a leadoff hitter.  But, I kind of let my mind wander away from that because, well, every time I thought about, the only guys I could think about putting there instead were Victorino and, even more desperately, the slow-footed Placido Polanco.  But, both of those guys present the same major problem that Rollins does – a total lack of patience at the plate.

But, Donnellon presents a new candidate for the job and, quite frankly, I love it:  Chase Utley.

Now, before we simply reject the idea, let’s think about for a minute.  First of all, Chase has been a pretty patient hitter for his entire career, which, to me, is the single most important quality in a leadoff man.  Secondly, Chase, while not seen as the stolen base threat of a Rollins or Victorino, is still a pretty solid stolen base guy and, more importantly, clearly the best baserunner on the team.  Thirdly, this is a pretty nice solution to the problem of having your 3-4 hitters both from the left side.  It would be nice to be able to filter in the switch-hitting Rollins and/or Victorino into the middle of the lineup somewhere.  And, finally (and most likely the reason it may not have dawned on a lot of us in the past), we need to start to face the fact that Chase is not the guy who hit 146 home runs over the 5 seasons from 2005 to 2009.  He is not even the guy who hit 5 home runs in the World Series in 2009.  Because of injuries and maybe simply age, Chase’s power has been depleted, so the run production that would be lost by moving the “Old Chase” to the leadoff spot isn’t an issue now because the “Old Chase” may not exist anymore.

So, to expound upon Donnellon’s column today, I would probably say that come October (assuming a return to health for guys like Howard and Polanco), the best Phillies lineup might look like this:

1. Utley
2. Polanco
3. Pence
4. Howard
5. Rollins
6. Mayberry/Nix platoon
7. Victorino
8. Ruiz

With bench guys like Thome, Wigginton, Valdes, and potentially Freddy Galvis, this team looks a good bit better than last year’s version.

Oh, and in case you haven’t heard, their pitchers are pretty good too…