Ideal Lineups: American League West

I discovered a fun tool over at Baseball Musings the other day that analyzes any nine-man lineup, and suggests an "optimal" lineup.

If you enter the player's name, on-base-percentage, and slugging percentage, the tool will also predict the average number of runs scored per game.

Needless to say, it is a very fun tool. I found myself messing around with it for hours over the weekend.

I found the lineups for every team over at RotoTimes, so I punched in every team's lineup, got the stats over at Baseball Reference, and I was off.

Now, before I am flooded with comments charging that I have bad information, that I am missing key players, or that I am completely loony, I think it is time for a disclaimer:

These lineups were taken from RotoTimes on March 29th. Anything that has happened since then was not taken into account when I put this together.

This list does not include injured players. For example, Detroit's Curtis Granderson, who would be a starter, is not included in the Tiger's optimal lineup.

Please just take this for what it is: a neat way to see how your team stacks up against the other teams in the league, and for you to see if there are any changes that your teams' manager needs to make.

Let's dive in, shall we?

AL West 

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 

Current lineup: Chone Figgins, Gary Matthews Jr., Vladimir Guerrero, Garrett Anderson, Torii Hunter, Casey Kotchman, Howie Kendrick, Jeff Mathis, Erick Aybar

Average with current lineup: 5.168 runs

Optimal lineup: Chone Figgins, Vladimir Guerrero, Howie Kendrick, Casey Kotchman, Torii Hunter, Jeff Mathis, Gary Matthews Jr., Garrett Anderson, Erick Aybar

Average with optimal lineup: 5.249 runs

Difference per season: 13.122 runs 

Oakland Athletics 

Current lineup: Travis Buck, Mark Ellis, Daric Barton, Mike Sweeney, Emil Brown, Bobby Crosby, Jack Hannahan, Kurt Suzuki, Chris Denorfia

Average with current lineup: 4.745 runs

Optimal lineup: Daric Barton, Travis Buck, Kurt Suzuki, Jack Hannahan, Mark Ellis, Bobby Crosby, Emil Brown, Mike Sweeney, Chris Denorfia

Average with optimal lineup: 4.825 runs

Difference per season: 12.96 runs 

Seattle Mariners 

Current lineup: Ichiro Suzuki, Jose Lopez, Raul Ibanez, Adrian Beltre, Richie Sexson, Brad Wilkerson, Jose Vidro, Kenji Johima, Yuniesky Betancourt

Average with current lineup: 4.817 runs

Optimal lineup: Ichiro Suzuki, Raul Ibanez, Kenji Johjima, Brad Wilkerson, Adrian Beltre, Richie Sexson, Jose Lopez, Yuniesky Betancourt, Jose Vidro

Average with optimal lineup: 4.930 runs

Difference per season: 18.306 runs

Texas Rangers 

Current lineup: Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, Josh Hamilton, Hank Blalock, Milton Bradley, Marlon Byrd, Ben Broussard, Frank Catalanotto, Gerald Laird

Average with current lineup: 5.459 runs

Optimal lineup: Milton Bradley, Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Hank Blalock, Marlon Byrd, Gerald Laird, Ben Broussard, Frank Catalanotto, Michael Young

Average with optimal lineup: 5.510 runs

Difference per season: 8.262 runs 

Stay tuned for the National League!

AL East
AL Central