Austin Jackson and the Tigers lineup

by Let's do this! on Jul 25, 2010 3:46 PM EDT

Hello fellow Tiger fans. This is my first FanPost and I hope to make many more. Enjoy and please feel free to comment!

So obviously with the title, I'm going to be talking a little bit about Austin Jackson and his position in the lineup. With the recent injuries to Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Guillen and Brandon Inge, our lineup is looking drastically different then it was on opening day. Because of this, we are getting younger and less experienced and this isn't/hasn't been all bad. Assuming we do not make any big moves and plan on using what we have I think we should shake up the lineup a little bit, with Austin Jackson being the main focus.

I really think they should experiment and try Austin Jackson in the No. 3 spot. Now I know he is not known for his power like a typical No. 3 hitter, but he has shown a history in the minors of driving in some runs and a little bit of power. He has only 1 HR per 18 games but has an RBI every two games. Now to put this into perspective, I'm going to compare him to the three other big major league rookies Jason Heyward, Carlos Santana and Mike Stanton.

Jason Heyward - 1 HR per 8 games. 1 RBI per 1.9 games
Carlos Santana - 1 HR per 7 games. 1 RBI per 1.5 games
Mike Stanton - 1 HR per 3.6 games. 1 RBI per 1.3 games
Austin Jackson - 1 HR per 18 games. 1 RBI per 2.2 games

Now like I said, he does not have the power that these others do but he drives in the runs about a frequently as they did in the minors and I think he is very capable to hit in the heart of the order like these rookies do. The other reason why I think we should is because it will give the opposing pitchers a little more to think about when he hits in front of Miguel Cabrera. With Maggs batting in front of him, there were no worries of him running as there would be with Jackson. This will cause the pitchers to sweat a little bit more and cause them to pitch to Cabby a little more.

Now with us doing this we would leave our lead off spot open. This would be filled by the obvious player, Johnny Damon, where I believe he is more comfortable at. He is used to hitting the first and second spot in the lineup through out his career so it would not be a huge adjustment for him. For the second spot in the lineup, I think we should look to filling that in with Danny Worth/Ramon Santiago/Scott Sizemore/Will Rhymes (whoever is playing 2nd/SS). We'd then have Jackson in third, Cabby fourth and Brennan Boesch in 5th. For the 6th spot we could fill that with Jeff Larish (for the time being), 7th being Worth/Santiago/Sizemore/Rhymes (who ever is playing the MI position), 8th being Ryan Raburn and last being Gerald Laird/Alex Avila. So in all, the lineup would look like this:

1st: Damon (DH/LF)
2nd: Worth/Santiago/Sizemore/Rhymes (2nd/SS)
3rd: Jackson (CF)
4th: Cabby (1st)
5th: Boesch (RF)
6th: Larish (3rd/DH)
7th: Worth/Santiago/Sizemore/Rhymes (2nd/SS)
8th: Raburn (3rd/LF)
9th: Laird/Avila

This would be my suggestion only assuming we make no major moves to improve our offense and would be until we get Inge (although I would stick in in the 6th/7th spot anyway), Maggs and Guillen back. I am very curious to hear what everyone else has to say about this.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Bless You Boys writing staff.

Tweet Comment 15 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

I like your line up there

Damon is a proven lead off batter. There are so many holes that the 2nd spot isn’t going to be a proven hitter anyway, so your 2B/SS idea fits as well as anyone’s. Then Jackson, Cabrera, Boesch could be a potent 3/4/5.
After that we just hope that the top of the lineup makes it up as many times as possible anyway, so plug them in.
Interesting about Ajax’s RBI history in the minors too. With the Tigers’ terrible RISP history this might make a difference.
BTW (did you really do the math with pencil? If you did, my hat’s off to you!)

by murrajo on Jul 25, 2010 6:09 PM EDT reply actions

Thank you!

And yes sir, I did do the math. I figured it would be best to place that in there just so people could see that he has the potential to produce like the other top rookies in the league.

Thanks again!

by Let's do this! on Jul 25, 2010 9:18 PM EDT up reply actions

NEWS FLASH JUST IN

Angels acquire 3 time All-Star Dan Haren from Dbacks for Joe Saunders and 2 prospects.

"I’d probably get arrested because football’s my only time I get to go out there and hit people as hard as I can, and it’s legal," Follett said. "I need that once a year."

by Rick Chaffee on Jul 25, 2010 6:37 PM EDT reply actions

Nice idea.

While Jackson can hit 3rd and probably will when he develops further a la Andrew McCutchen, I still think he helps the team most batting leadoff since he has the best legs on the roster right now. Damon only has 7SB all season. compared to Jackson’s 16SB.

by bezeerk on Jul 25, 2010 8:02 PM EDT reply actions

Excellent point

I have no arguments with this at all. I had thought about this for a while and with Guillen and Maggs going down I figured there was no better time than now to see what others thought.

by Let's do this! on Jul 25, 2010 9:19 PM EDT up reply actions

Good post

What I would like to see is Leyland moving Cabrera and Boesch up to the 3 and 4 spots in the lineup. They would see more ABs per game and we wouldn’t see a gap between Jackson and Damon at 1-2 and Cabrera and Bosch at 4-5. The rest of the lineup would suck something fierce but it usually does anyway.

Detroit4Lyfe

by handsomerob1 on Jul 25, 2010 8:18 PM EDT reply actions

That works good, also. I was thinking about getting a big three set up again.

by Let's do this! on Jul 25, 2010 9:22 PM EDT up reply actions

Cabrera's most comparable player?

Albert Pujols.

Where does Albert bat again? That’s right, #3.

I read somewhere that each spot higher in the lineup adds about 50 AB’s per season. I’d like 50 more AB’s from Cabrera…Heck, I’d like 150 more by moving him up to #1, but it sure is nice having guys on base for him.

Granderson was my Tiger, then Sizemore, then Willis. Since they're all gone, I'm taking Raburn and hoping the pattern holds.

by momotigers on Jul 25, 2010 11:33 PM EDT up reply actions

line up?

i love the idea. One sugestion is Santiago lead off-then Damon, reason simple his OBP , Gives Damon a chance at RBI’s and he likes to move runners around. I think this improves the top 2/3 of the order— almost.
what do you think?
Grant

by gws on Jul 25, 2010 9:19 PM EDT reply actions

Thank you

Excellent point. My main thought behind Damon going to lead off is he has had the experience at lead off and seems to be able to handle it well.

This is all just my random thoughts and was what I found to be the best chances at driving in runs. We really need to get this offense going and if can’t make a trade for a big bat, then we need to shake things up somehow.

by Let's do this! on Jul 25, 2010 9:26 PM EDT up reply actions

Just saw the box score for game 2

Almost looks like what I suggested, maybe they read my posting! Hahaha.

by Let's do this! on Jul 25, 2010 9:30 PM EDT reply actions

Welcome

Question- where do we find dh big bat? They don’t come cheap and remember Tigers are against rent a players. and I don’t blame them. Too often you get some else’s problem.

by gws on Jul 25, 2010 9:31 PM EDT reply actions

Big Bat

How about Buck? He might be availabe!?

by gws on Jul 25, 2010 9:36 PM EDT reply actions

Well, this post was assuming that we made no major moves at the deadline. So all those talks about Dunn, Guillen, Werth, Buck, etc. do not happen. This post was meant to be for the lineup we use right now. I would love to see us get a big bat (and perhaps that is a near future posting) and not have to worry about it right now, but to get anyone worth while we are going to need to give up a lot.

by Let's do this! on Jul 25, 2010 10:27 PM EDT up reply actions

Great Post.

I wouldnt mind Ajax moving down however I also dont want to mess with a good thing. Considering he hits leadoff he gets up more per game becasue of it. I like the Idea of Caby moving up to the 3 spot better. Nice post though man.

by BennieBladesFan on Jul 26, 2010 12:17 AM EDT reply actions