Toys For Good Boys And Girls

Our friends at Baseball Reference have filled in the lineup and batting order charts for last season.

Want to know how many consecutive times Frank sent Zimmerman out there? Every day from 6/6 to 8/22.

Want to know why Schneider didn't hit? Maybe because he caught 17 of 18 games (only to soon go on the DL with bad hamstrings... I wonder why!)

Would you believe that our most common lineup had Marlon Anderson at 2B? Or that we used 91 different lineups throughout the year, to include 9 different centerfielders?

How about that we used 110 total batting orders in just 162 games? Or that the most common batting order was used just 6 times (although four different lineups were used that many times).

That's a lot of instability!

Heckling readers gleefully pointed out the stupidity of my recent Division Series predictions where I went a sterling 0-4, completely missing every @#$#@$ing series. I told you I stink.

In Baseball Prospectus' pre-season Predicatron contest, I had the Mets and the A's. I guess I'll stick with them, even if the opposite result wouldn't surprise me. I'll take the A's patience over the Tigers liners, and the Mets offense over the Cardinals, well, whatever it is that they're known for. (Overbearing managerial strategy?)