re: Baseball lineups

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I agree that Larson is a natural 2 hole

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5 years ago, absolutely. I've always liked a LHH in the 2 hole to potentially pull a ground ball to the right side if the leadoff doubles or gets on a swipes 2nd to get him to 3rd with 1 out at worst, but a good enough bat-to-ball guy that a ground ball to the right side isn't just a sacrifice and could be barreled up for an RBI single.

However, we've seen lineups constructed differently the last several years. I think it started in MLB (maybe when the NL went to the DH in in 2020 and just more data became available were part of the reasons), but a lot of teams started putting their best hitters in the 2-hole, guys that would traditionally have been 3-hole guys. Or even at leadoff if they have speed and don't strike out a lot and have high OBP%s. Acuna, Betts, Crews his 1st couple of years at LSU are examples.

But you saw Jay really embrace Crews as his best hitter in the 2-hole last year, and he likes Tommy there this year. That's become pretty common-place now. And I don't have the data in front of me to prove how much it actually happens, but I'm sure it's about giving your best hitters more ABs throughout the season (more likely to get 5 ABs in a game instead of 4 the higher you are). But maybe more importantly, it's to make sure your best 3 hitters all are guaranteed to hit in the 1st inning, giving you the best chance to score 1st. And so I think Jay is pretty settled on White in the 2-hole and Jones in the 3-hole, while 3-4 years ago, White would be in the 3-hole with Jones cleaning up.

And with Larson's ability to put the bat on the ball, spray it to all fields, have really competitive ABs, and get on base, he's probably the perfect guy to lead off and set up Tommy and Bear. Right now, I think the top 5 for the rest of the season is likely to be:

1) Larson
2) White
3) Jones
4) Pearson
5) Travinski

Even if Trav goes on a heater, I don't think Jay would put 3 RHHs in a row to have him hit cleanup. Probably why Braswell is not really an option at leadoff as well as long as White and Jones are settled in at 2-3. This lineup is not long enough this year to have guys in "traditional" spots, and Jay really values alternating LHH and RHH when he can, thinking about high leverage matchups in the later innings.