[I Am The Game]

Originally posted by Alan T
Good luck figuring Boston's out.. I am starting to doubt that even Grady Little knows what the lineup is going to be...

Seems to be some combination of:

CF J. Damon (even though Jackson started at CF in one of the two starts vs LH)
2B T. Walker vs RH B. Mueller vs LH (seems to be the case at least
SS Nomar Garciaparra (one of only two or three constants)
LF/DH Manny Ramirez (Sometimes in the field, sometimes the DH)
? Kevin Millar/ David Ortiz (Millar vs LH bats after Manny. He has played 1B, LF, RF and DH right now. Ortiz bats behind Manny vs RH and has played 1B and DH)


After the first 4 or 5 batters, it goes something like this from what I can tell:

3B Shea Hillenbrand vs LH (Also has played 1B vs LH as B. Mueller played 3B)
RF Trot Nixon vs RH (Seems he isnt playing as much vs LH.)
LF Jeremy Giambi vs RH (Have not seen him play as much against LH. He also has played 1B)

Finally in any game that Damian Jackson didnt start the 9th batter has been the catcher..

J. Varitek vs RH and Dough Mirabelli vs LH thus far (However Mirabelli's injury has made it hard to figure out if this is a strict platoon or only every now and again thing.)


Anyhows.. good luck figuring that out. I sure haven't yet.


The starting rotation thus far has been:

1. Pedro Martinez
2. Tim Wakefield
3. Derek Lowe
4. Casey Fossum
5. John Burkett
(even though Robert Person did well in spring training competing for a spot)


The bullpen is just as easy to figure out as the lineup is..

They have the following bullpen:
B. Howry
A. Embree
R. Mendoza
M. Timlin
C. Fox

If you know who is going to be used where, you know more than most of New England So far it looked like Alan Embree and Chad Fox had the pleasure of blowing the first few saves.. Mendoza has been used in 7th and 8th innings (Even though he did close out one game).. and who knows about Howry or TImlin..

Have fun!

Little has said the first couple weeks will be some mix and match until he finds the right combo, remember even before the season started Little said he had four different lineups for each of the first four games of the year...Anyway

Just figured I'd give what I've seen so far, then G can mix and see what's best.

It seems to mainly be:
CF Damon
2B Walker/2B-3B Mueller (That's the plan at least..)
SS Nomar
LF-DH Manny (as noted, sometimes LF sometimes DH)
1B/RF Kevin Millar (RF Vs. LH again, supposed to be the plan)
3B/1B Hillenbrand
DH-1B Ortiz/Giambi (Tough to tell who's playing when)
RF Trot/DH-1B Ortiz-Giambi/2B-CF Jackson
C Varitek/Mirabelli.

Ok...basically here's the rundown.

Vs. LHP Mueller is supposed to play in place of Walker, some at 2B some at 3B, moving Shea to 1B in place of Giambi/Ortiz. Also, he may play 3B, moving Shea to 1B and Jackson may play some CF and 2B. Really the CF thing isn't Vs. LHP or RHP, it's just whenever Little feels Damon needs a day off.
Varitek/Mirabelli isn't really a platoon, although there was some talk he may get some 1B Time Vs. LHP, Mirabelli is Wakefield's personal catcher - and since there is no way to set that in OOTP, the best way maybe to set Varitek as the starter Vs Both, and Mirabelli starting at 20% (although I have heard the depth charts isn't starting 20% of games, it's he has a 20% chance of starting the current game).
Millar is going to play just about everyday, 1B Vs. RHP and RF Vs. LHP.
Ortiz and Giambi kind of seem to just be splitting time at DH Vs. RH. Giambi has a better chance of seeing time Vs. LH then Ortiz. When Manny DH's, Giambi plays left.

Any of those combinations can come into play on any given day Gregg, so just do your best and I'll take it lol.

Now for the pitching:
1. Pedro
2. Wakefield
3. Lowe
4. Fossum
5. Burkett

You can se this as Pedro-Lowe-Wakefield-Burkett-Fossum as it would be usually. But Little sticks Wakefield after Pedro and Fossum is the 4th starter so he faced a lefty-heavy lineup in TB.

Bullpen:
Steve Woodard
Brandon Lyon
Chad Fox
Mike Timlin
Ramiro Mendoza
Alan Embree
Bobby Howry

Basically....in the thing you had me I have it set up as:

Mop-Up: 1. Woodard 2. Lyon
Long-Man: 1. Timlin 2. Howry 3. Lyon 4. Woodard
Set-Up: 1. Fox 2. Embree
Closer: 1. Mendoza

Based on success so far, anyway. My guess is shortly Fox will be ok (he only pitched like 5 innings last year or something) and him and Mendoza will switch spots. But you should probably make Lyon a MR, and at least Triple-A ready, ditto with Woodard as they are in the Boston bullpen. Lyon's touching 95, and throwing well. But that's for another thread

Anyway, couple this with that awesome Red Sox fans (aren't all us Red Sox fans awesome) stuff, and see what you can come up with. Lol, you'll probably work more on this team then anyone else. Nothing is set in stone, everything's committee and platooning and matchups.