One reason this is probably too early is because of the overall feeling that the Cubs are done tinkering with the position players after they reportedly agreed to a deal with Eric Hosmer (yay) and won’t be in the running for Carlos Correa anymore since he signed with the Twins (dying laughing) and will likely just look for ways to round out the bullpen, which I think they can probably just do in-house since that seems to be the strength of the organization at the moment. I did a roster check before the holidays and I think that’s pretty much still intact, so we should be able to bounce off that for this post.
The other reason, and I am hoping that they will try something outside the box to make this happen, is that the Cubs could potentially trade for help with the bat by dealing from that pitching strength, but since I haven’t followed too many other systems (I barely have time to follow this team), I don’t feel confident to know whom they might target from another team or which team might be willing to part with intriguing prospects for some Cubs pitching redundancies, so let’s do that another time (probably when they actually make a deal and we just try to do a post-mortem).
Anyway, having a roster is great, but of course you need a starting nine to set up a batting order, and maybe even bat around every now and then if they’re lucky. Since again, the roster is pretty much what you see now, we can use this group of 13 plus two potential taxi squad dudes from the position player side (parenthetical = handedness in the box):
- Catcher – Tucker Barnhart (L), Yan Gomes (R)
- First Base – Matt Mervis (L), Eric Hosmer (L), Patrick Wisdom (R)
- Second Base – Nico Hoerner (R)
- Shortstop – Dansby Swanson (R)
- Third Base – Zach McKinstry (L), Miles Mastrobuoni (L), Christopher Morel (R)
- Left Field – Ian Happ (S)
- Center Field – Cody Bellinger (L)
- Right Field – Seiya Suzuki (R)
- Bench/Designated Hitter – Nick Madrigal (R), Nelson Velázquez (R)
I’m going to assume that McKinstry, Mastrobuoni, and Velázquez duke it out for the final spot, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Cubs decide Hosmer isn’t worth it and dump him before Opening Day (he’s league minimum anyway) but it would be nice if he didn’t completely suck. Madrigal is probably sell-low trade bait but since he’s got options remaining, I don’t think they’ll cut bait just yet and a contact bat would be nice to have.
The dudes over at Marquee (for those of you with the channel, I certainly don’t, thanks a lot Crane) had some thoughts on the Opening Day lineup as you can see via this tweet. I’ll type it up for those of you who refuse to go back to the Musk Melon hellsite.
Andy Martínez had the following:
- DH Nick Madrigal (dying laughing)
- SS Dansby Swanson
- LF Ian Happ
- RF Seiya Suzuki
- CF Cody Bellinger
- 2B Nico Hoerner
- 1B Eric Hosmer
- 3B Patrick Wisdom
- C Tucker Barnhart
If Madrigal is healthy and does what we think he’s supposed to do, he makes sense as a leadoff guy. The fact that even a resurgent Bellinger is batting fifth is probably not too inspiring for this lineup, and the other fact that Eric Hosmer is the number seven hitter is even worse and speaks to the Cubs failing to address the offense as we’ve discussed ad nauseum.
Tony Andracki has the following:
- 1B Eric Hosmer (dying laughing) again
- SS Dansby Swanson
- LF Ian Happ
- RF Seiya Suzuki
- CF Cody Bellinger
- 2B Nico Hoerner
- DH Patrick Wisdom
- C Tucker Barnhart
- 3B Christopher Morel
I find it intriguing that both gentlemen have the same 2-6 in their hypothetical lineups, and the 2-6 actually makes sense regardless of the handedness of the opposing pitcher because I believe Swanson has hit just about everywhere in the lineup but was mostly the two-hole guy with Atlanta last year, Happ and Suzuki pretty much batted back to back with each other although I think they were swapped in the order for a good chunk of it, and you can’t bat Nico any lower than sixth because *waves hands* the rest of the lineup, and also I think both Marquee guys wanted to alternate handedness if possible. I think neither guy is expecting Mervis to crack the opening day roster, but I feel like a good spring and again *waves hands* the rest of the roster will perhaps force the Cubs’ hands here.
I guess I can set up a lineup against most starters and one against tougher lefties. Let’s do the standard one first:
- DH Nick Madrigal (sigh I guess there aren’t many alternatives)
- SS Dansby Swanson
- LF Ian Happ
- RF Seiya Suzuki
- CF Cody Bellinger
- 2B Nico Hoerner
- 1B Eric Hosmer (but I think we’d prefer Mervis, right?)
- 3B Christopher Morel or McKinstry/Mastrobuoni
- C Tucker Barnhart
Then against the tough lefties:
- DH Nick Madrigal
- SS Dansby Swanson
- LF Ian Happ
- RF Seiya Suzuki
- 2B Nico Hoerner
- 3B Christopher Morel
- DH Patrick Wisdom
- CF Cody Bellinger or Nelson Velázquez (if he makes the roster)
- C Yan Gomes
I know folks like the nine-hole as the “second leadoff guy” but I’d just rather the offensive black holes at catcher don’t get any more plate appearances than are necessary.
Have at it, agree or disagree, I can’t tell you what to do.