FanPost

Worst Case Scenario


We trotted out a pretty sad lineup last night in the series finale against the Marlins. Then Kozma got 3 hits and we won easily. Of course we did. The pitching has been absolutely amazing. So amazing that IF it keeps pitching like it has (and yes, that's a big if), we literally can't screw this up.

I tried to imagine our worst possible lineup for the rest of the year. Imagine that Holliday and Adams never come back. Imagine that Heyward and Wong collide going for a pop-up putting them out for the season. Peralta gets suspended for PEDs he did years ago. Carpenter needs lots of rest. Skinny Yadi gets too skinny to wear catcher's gear. This is our everyday lineup for the rest of the year:

Bourjos cf

Jay lf

Grichuk rf

Reynolds 3b

Xavier Scruggs 1b

Greg Garcia 2b

Pete Kozma SS

Tony Cruz C

Lackey p

According to Baseball Musing's lineup simulator, this exact lineup would score 3.18 runs per game. (I used ZIPS rest of season projections for OBP and SLG.) That's pretty bad. Even the Phillies are averaging 3.29 runs per game, worst in MLB.

But wait! Our pitching has only allowed 207 runs or 2.875 runs per game. If we had scored 3.29 runs per game so far, we'd have scored 229 runs. We'd have a run differential of 22. That's slightly better than the Cubs and Giants and probably gets us the 2nd wild card.

Now keep in mind that we only need to be a .500 team from here on out to win 93 games. So as long as our pitching continues to be historic, don't sweat the bench, the lineups or anything else.