Best Lineup - Los Angels of Anaheim

In my previous post I used my baseball simulator to look at the best lineup for the Cincinnati Reds vs both a LH/RH pitcher.  Up at the plate this time are the Angels.  Keep in mind that the input projections I am using are from Bill James and the input projections go a long ways in determining which lineup is the best.  What you will see with the Angels, which may look odd to some people, is the placement of their catcher Chris Iannetta in the lineup.  Iannetta is one of those players with unspectacular statistics but he has put up some pretty impressive OBP numbers.  Let's take a look at the results and then analyze a little bit what is going on.


Baseline Lineup from MLBDepthCharts

LF - Mike Trout
SS - Erick Aybar
1B - Albert Pujols
RF - Josh Hamilton
DH - Mark Trumbo
2B - Howie Kendrick
3B - Alberto Callaspo
C - Chris Iannetta
CF - Peter Bourjos

Ok, so this is the lineup we need to beat.

Best Lineup vs RHP

LF - Mike Trout
C - Chris Iannetta
1B - Albert Pujols
RF - Josh Hamilton
DH - Mark Trumbo
SS - Erick Aybar
2B - Howie Kendrick
CF - Peter Bourjos
3B - Alberto Callaspo

Best Lineup vs LHP

C - Chris Iannetta
LF - Mike Trout
1B - Albert Pujols
DH - Mark Trumbo
RF - Josh Hamilton
SS - Erick Aybar
CF - Peter Bourjos
3B - Alberto Callaspo
2B - Howie Kendrick


Analysis:  We see that with the Bill James projections, the simulator wants Chris Iannetta batting 2nd vs RHP and leadoff vs LHP.  The simulator really wants his high OBP ahead of the four power hitters.  You really aren't clogging the bases any more than you were already doing in the MLBDepthCharts baseline lineup with Iannetta hitting in front of both Bourjos and Trout.  Iannetta has a lifetime OBP of 0.354 with most of those at-bats coming in the NL where he mostly batted 8th ahead of the pitchers spot.  In limited time with the Angels last year his OBP was only 0.332.  Bill James projects his OBP to be 0.352 right in line with his career norm.  Other than Iannetta, no player has a big jump between RHP/LHP lineups.  Kendrick does drop two spots against LHP and Hamilton drops one spot against southpaws.  Pujols claims the third spot in all lineups while Trumbo moves up to cleanup from the 5th spot against lefties.  There were several lineups vs LHP that were close contenders to this lineup, but those contenders only had very minor changes to what ended up winning out.  The winning vs RHP lineup only saved 0.17 wins per 162 games over the baseline lineup, while the vs LHP lineup netted an extra 0.48 wins per 162 games.  Barely enough trouble to worry about, no?