Everybody knows who hits and who doesn’t hit.
And you want your guys, typically your better hitters, one through five. That’s it basically.
And I think maybe some people could want to say, “Move McCarthy out of a leadoff spot against left-handed pitching because that spot’s coming around, and you want the right-hander at the top,” but not me. That’s more gut. That’s more gut because there is something to leaving a guy like that in a spot that he’s comfortable with, and he doesn’t even think about it, and he knows he’s earned it, and he does a really good job at it, so it’s good to have that spot covered.
I love talking about lineup construction.
I’ve evolved in my in my thought process on lineups, as well, especially with when you get to the big leagues and the late-game matchups are so important to get, and especially with the way our team is built. We need the best matchups, and we’ve been doing it all year.
And our offense has been really good all year, just in general, compared to the league. And a lot of that is late-game matchups.
You prepare also for where you’re going to pinch hit, and you know who you’re going to pinch hit, and when and where. And the lineup is constructed based on that as well at certain points.
It’s definitely been good because when I was in the minor leagues and old school thought. . . . But old school, people used to say, some teams can be constructed like that, where one through nine, they know. Like the Dodgers, they know one through nine what the order they’re going to be in every night, pretty much, for the most part over the past five years.
And there’s something to that. There’s something to a guy knowing, “I’m going to hit third and play first base every day.”
We’re not built like that. Our team is not built like that. We need matchups.