NY lineup 2017

jon abbey

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Sanchez has batted second a couple of times this spring and Girardi says he is open to putting him there in the regular season, which I think makes sense. Here's my attempt at a lineup, I'm assuming no Bird/Carter platoon and so the same starters against RHP and LHP:

LF Gardner
C Sanchez
1B Bird
DH Holliday
SS Didi
2B Castro
CF Ellsbury
RF Judge
3B Headley

Once Judge gets it going:

LF Gardner
C Sanchez
1B Bird
DH Holliday
RF Judge
SS Didi
2B Castro
CF Ellsbury
3B Headley

Bench is Carter (1B/DH), Hicks (OF), Torreyes (2B/SS/3B), Romine (C).

Higashioka is almost certainly better than Romine, but they will likely start him in AAA to get everyday ABs and also since they don't have a great third-string option if they have to DFA Romine and lose him (Wilkin Castillo I think is next in line currently).

I don't think any of the other position players' roster spots are in question, maybe Ruben Tejada for utility infielder but Torreyes did a solid job in that role last year and is three years younger than Tejada.
 

jon abbey

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Bump, the Didi injury made this a little easier for Girardi because he can just put the replacement SS 9th, and once Ellsbury is out of the top two slots, it will be a lot easier to slowly slide him down even farther if he doesn't produce:

"Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Tuesday that he was leaning toward having Brett Gardner bat leadoff, followed by Sanchez, Greg Bird, Matt Holliday and Jacoby Ellsbury."
 

jon abbey

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NY has their last exhibition game tonight, and their starting lineup is likely their starting lineup going forward. Hate Ellsbury in the 5 spot, it's better than in the top 2, but Holliday is not going to get much to hit in many situations, hopefully Judge or Castro moves up to 5 sometime soon:

LF Gardner
C Sanchez
1B Bird
DH Holliday
CF Ellsbury
2B Castro
3B Headley
RF Judge
SS Torreyes
 

jon abbey

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Pretty excited for Sanchez, Bird, and Judge to all be in the same lineup, as is this article. The exit velocty numbers are all very small sample size obviously, but still all very promising (Bird's is from 2015, since he was out all last season):

https://sports.vice.com/en_us/highlight/gary-sanchez-greg-bird-and-aaron-judge-are-here-to-obliterate-baseballs-for-the-yankees

Aaron Judge

2016 average exit velocity: 95.5 MPH (2nd in MLB)

Gary Sanchez

2016 average exit velocity: 94.1 MPH (8th in MLB)

Greg Bird

2015 average exit velocity: 93.7 MPH (6th in MLB)
 

jon abbey

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I'm cautiously excited about having a healthy Matt Holliday. Watching his workouts is pretty impressive. Guy is a bit of a beast.
They just did a long interview with him before tonight's game that I saw some of, he said he hit too many ground balls last year and he worked all winter to try to get the ball in the air more. He is another one with great exit velocity, even at 37:

"Among batters who had least 100 batted balls in play in 2016, Holliday ranked third in the Majors with an average exit velocity of 94.7 mph, trailing only Nelson Cruz (95.9) and Giancarlo Stanton (95.1) according to MLB.com's Statcast. Holliday hit the ball at least 100 mph 42.5% of the time, marking the fourth-best percentage among the 247 hitters to put the ball in play at least 200 times."

I am definitely excited for him, too bad the carcass of the Turncoat Dreamboat is right behind him (for now).
 

jon abbey

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Heh, I am watching the game a little behind and Ellsbury stranded two to end the first. When Aaron Judge was delivered, the doctor said "Congrats, Mrs. Judge, it's a healthy fifth place hitter." Hopefully we won't have to wait too long for that, maybe once Didi is back.
 

jon abbey

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Sanchez/Bird/Judge currently have a combined 35 career HRs in 444 ABs, it will be very exciting if they could get 1500 healthy PAs combined.
 

jon abbey

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Pretty awesome, NY has an all-Georgia OF in there now, Frazier/Fowler/Crawford, for the first game in Atlanta's new stadium.