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Marc did an excellent job Tuesday stating the cases for the different candidates for the Red Sox leadoff hitter. But what he didn't do was start off the lineup wars, which is what I get to do.
By now, I'm sure you're all familiar with the drill for this: rec your favorite option listed below, Now a few notes before we get started.
- Since platooning is an option that would have potentially a major effect on the overall lineup, we're only going to vote for the line up versus right-handed pitching for now. We'll get to the left-handed pitchers later on.
- This is not a prognostication poll. You do not need to vote for the player who you think will hit in a given position, just the player you think should hit there.
Okay—now time to settle down to business. First, your likely regulars versus right-handers in 2014:
- 1B: Mike Napoli
- 2B: Dustin Pedroia
- SS: Xander Bogaerts
- 3B: Will Middlebrooks
- LF: Daniel Nava
- CF: Jackie Bradley Jr.
- RF: Shane Victorino
- C: A.J. Placeholder*
- DH: David Ortiz
*I humbly submit this as his new OTM nickname. Vicious and accurate!
Now there's an outside chance that a couple of other people could be starting, but this would be rather unlikely. On the other hand, if they're starting, they're on the regular 25-man roster, so we shouldn't leave them out. So I'll add the following candidates to the pool:
- LF/1B: Mike Carp
- LF/1B: Jonny Gomes
- CF: Grady Sizemore
- C: David Ross
Of course, if any of those guys ends up batting leadoff, I'm pretty sure that means one of the other AL East manager's has gotten into John Farrell's head, Being John Malkovich-style, which is bad news for all of us, and a sign of the imminent Soxpocalypse.
We'll try to get this poll going on weekdays opposite the "Top Prospects" poll, so that you guys won't be left hungering for meaningless endlessly entertaining and informative polls to vote in.