just when he can prove………thats solid lineup with pop, average, speed, defense, young and old. The catching cant be worse than it is now so I dont see why that wouldnt work…I didnt even explain Holliday, get rid of the whole farm, screw it lets go with it.

batting order…………………Dickerson
                                            Keppinger
                                            Votto
                                            Holliday
                                            Bruce
                                            Phillips
                                            Gonzalez
                                            Catcher
                                            Pitcher
                                            
                                            
                                            

Gonzalez and Encarnacion don’t really work as platoon partners since they’re both right handed. Here are their splits:

                 PA     AVG   OBP   SLG

AGon  vs RHP    3330   .249  .295  .399

      vs LHP    1017   .247  .298  .402

Edwin vs RHP    1198   .264  .329  .450

      vs LHP     536   .277  .380  .471

And of course Edwin will be 26 while Alex will be 32. I don’t know what to do with Gonzalez (if he can still play), but giving some of Edwin’s at bats to him seems like a really bad idea.

Why not Keppinger? Dude is having a terrible year both offensively and defensively.

BP has been pretty bad offensively this year (worse than Ede for sure).

Bruce needs some major adjustments at the plate (his OBP is .298 right now).

I understand that Edwin’s defense sucks, but if that’s what is keeping him unproven, then move him to a different position. Taking him out of the lineup weakens an already weak lineup. All you’ve added is Holliday to replace Dunn, so without some serious improvement from a bunch of other players in the lineup, you’ve got basically the same crap lineup we’ve had this season.

And there is no way that if Keppinger and Gonzalez are both in the lineup that Keppinger should be the one playing SS.

Granted, this is :just for fun, but wow.

• While I could see the payroll jumping a bit, you’ve bumped it up to $120M or more.
• Sabathia is going to command $22M+ for 5+ years. Let someone else take the chance he won’t eat himself out of baseball.
• I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but IRod is no longer a good catcher. He’d lost playing time to Brandon Inge in Detroit; still, someone will give him 3 years and too much money.
• As noted by Slyde, Keppinger is a terrible defensive SS. As I noted in another thread, the entire idea that he can hit MLB pitching is based on one stretch of 140 PA in the middle of last season (out of over 800 career PA).
• There’s no good reason to keep Freel around if you’re going to keep Hairston, who is probably a better hitter and (amazingly) a lower injury risk. Instead of two guys who’re marginally versitle but not great hitters, why not keep one and sign someone who might be able to PH?
• Affeldt was lured to Cinci with a promise to start; he’s also making $3M this year (which means he’ll make more next, given his 2 good years in a row). He’ll go somewhere someone will pay him $7M+ to screw up their rotation.
• Phillips is barely a league-average hitter. There’s no way he should be hitting 3rd.

His value is mainly defensively, so there would be no reason to put him in LF – his bat would not get the job done out there.

Casey Blake is starting a precipitous decline.