Another Exercise - Give it a try

[jamalshw]

18 hours ago, CaptainRedbeard said:

All of these lineups are hilariously stacked if the prospects continue on their expected trajectories. Some of them won’t, of course. But it’s fun to dream.

Holliday is already projected for a .350 OBP in 2024 by Steamer. Him and Adley will be an insanely good 1/2 combo at the top, and Holliday could easily develop more power too. And Cowser and Bradfield Jr. could certainly become high OBP guys worthy of top of the lineup spots.

Then Gunnar’s pretty great already anywhere 1-4, and each of Mayo, Kjerstad and Basallo could become your quintessential cleanup masher types. 

If all breaks the right way, Jordan Westburg could end up a 115ish wRC+ guy and never sniff higher than batting 7th (vs. RHP at least). 

The great thing about these stacked lineups is that there are some differences in them so there are options. As you pointed out with Mayo, Kjerstad and Basallo for a middle of the order masher is, even if we just go 1-for-3 in that trio, that still gives us a great 1-4 in the order with Holliday, Adley, Henderson and one of those three. You can then fill in the last five spots with some combination the other two along with: Westburg, Ortiz, Norby, Cowser, Beavers, Bradfield, Horvath, and maybe even Rhodes, Willems, Wagner, Bencosme, and so many others that would be talked about much more if our system wasn't so stacked. 

Honestly, I find it hard to not build a rather stacked lineup completely internally even banking on half our guys not developing as hoped. Of course, given the needs on the pitching side, we need to hope more on the likes of McDermott, Povich, Johnson, etc. and that our front office is able to rightly identify which position prospects to keep and which to trade for pitching when necessary.