Baseball lineups

I want Larson leading off against RHP and LHP and any ambidextrous unicorn. That’s his spot now

Larson looked more comfortable in 2 hole and I think Milam was just born to be a lead off hitter!

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Dude was clutch the last 2 SEC series

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I don't think Pearson leaves the lineup the next 2 series, Jay absolutely trusts Pearson in clutch situations.

I like Larson leading off and if Jay puts Kling back in CF, hitting 9th. If Kling gets OB, Larson can move him and follow up with Tommy and Bear.

Pearson deserves to be in the line up just as much as anyone at the current.

After this past weekend, you can't take Pearson out no matter what arm is throwing. If Bingham had been crushing the ball lately, sure. But even in that scenario he's probably playing CF instead of Kling/Brown.

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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.

The best hitter in the 2-hole is about getting more ABs, but it’s also to avoid the possibility of your best hitter coming up with 2 outs and the bases empty in the first inning, which would happen 35-40% of the time or more depending on the OBP of the first two batters.