Boston Red Sox: Optimal Second Half Starting Lineup

Before the Red Sox 2012 campaign began, I drafted my annual season preview; complete with what I dubbed to be the Sox optimal starting lineup. Here’s what I wanted to see:

1) Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
2) Dustin Pedroia, 2B
3) David Ortiz, DH
4) Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
5) Kevin Youkilis, 3B
6) Carl Crawford, LF
7) Cody Ross, RF
8)Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
9) Mike Aviles, SS

And as the 2011 Red Sox taught us, things don’t always work out as planned. There were injuries, there were departures.

Luckily, however, none of these guys proved to simply stink at baseball.

As the Red Sox are now generally healthy (minus David Ortiz’s stint on the DL), I thought it would be fun to revisit the notion of the optimal lineup Bobby Valentine can put out there on the field. Without further ado, here’s my starting lineup card, assuming a completely healthy roster.

1) Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
2) Carl Crawford, LF
3) Dustin Pedroia, 2B
4) David Ortiz, DH
5) Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
6) Cody Ross, RF
7) Will Middlebrooks, 3B
8) Mike Aviles, SS
9) Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C

So why the shake-up?

First off, both Crawford and Ellsbury have played pretty well since returning from the DL. It may seem silly to many to have two speedster lefties at the top of the lineup, but I love it–it just looks dangerous. All you need is one of these guys to get on base, and they can wreak havoc on the pitcher and distract him from the core hitters in the line-up. And if they do both manage to get on base, they’re going to both score–if it’s at all possible on any hit into a gap.

I really prefer to have David Ortiz hitting third, but I just can’t bring myself to put Pedroia farther down in the line-up. He may be the toughest out on the team, and he’s bumped into the third spot simply because I want to keep the Ellsbury-Crawford duo at the top.

Another sad side effect of this is that Cody Ross, who really could hit third in this lineup, is bumped down to the number six position. I think it’s fair to say that 1-6 this lineup is brutal, and with Middlebrooks, Aviles and Saltalamacchia all enjoying breakout seasons, 7-9 isn’t particularly easy as well.

All of this is evidenced by the Red Sox having the second most productive offense in baseball this season, despite the injuries.

Now, if Ben Cherington could just wake up and do something more significant than trading Brent Lillibridge in an effort to address their starting pitching woes, we might actually give this team a fighting chance of going somewhere.

And before you rain on my parade by bellowing comments about the absurdity of the notion that the Red Sox are still relevant, may you recall for me the winner of last year’s World Series. At this point in 2011 the St. Louis Cardinals were barely above .500, and they had just managed to eek out 90 victories en route to claiming a wild card spot and winning it all.

Crazier things have happened, and if this offensive line-up stays healthy, they’ll win their share of games–if they get any sort of even mediocre pitching from their starters.

Geoff Roberts is the Founder & Managing Editor of howiGit.com, a Boston sports blog.