Astros Potential 2015 Lineup

The Astros may not be done fine tuning their roster, but there is already speculation swirling around what their potential lineup could be in 2015. We were asked this question on our ask.fm account, but this morning, our friends at Astros Future were thinking along the same lines, so we wanted to give our thoughts too!

First, here is what Astros Future proposed as their lineup:

I like this lineup a lot, personally, but let’s do some digging and see what we find when we have each player’s stats from last season included.

This is a pretty logical lineup. Jake Marisnick‘s stats are solely from his time with Houston, and George Springer‘s numbers figure to be on the rise over the course of a full season.

One could argue that Altuve should lead off, so that the switch-hitting Dexter Fowler breaks up the righties in the 2-3-4 slots, but personally, I like Altuve in the two hole. Many managers these days are slotting their best hitter second, instead of third, and Altuve is certainly the most capable player in Houston with a bat.

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Let’s tinker with this a little bit. With the types of hitters the Astros have, it is possible that they could try something innovative and new, if not off-the-wall crazy. The top four batters are pretty set, with Jose Altuve and Fowler in some order at the top, Springer likely in the three hole, and Chris Carter doing the mashing from the cleanup spot. I’m fairly certain we can all agree on that. But let’s say we split the lineup in two, with those four being one group, and Jed Lowrie, Jon Singleton, Marisnick and Jason Castro being the second. Matt Dominguez is the odd man out in this scenario, and will be locked into the nine hole.

If we keep Lowrie in the five spot, move Marisnick up to the six spot, Castro at seven, and Singleton at eight, we have a pretty similar feel to the top four of the order, with Singleton acting as a second cleanup hitter. Lowrie is the “second leadoff hitter” due to his OBP being the highest of anyone in the bottom five.

If Marisnick sticks to the production he provided in Houston after the trade deadline last season, and Castro rebounds just a little, they could set the table for Singleton nicely. Here is another way of looking at it:

I know this sounds a little crazy, but this is also taking into account last year’s numbers. If each of the bottom five in the order produces like they did last year, the lineup will be in shambles anyway, and this is one way that could help their run output over the course of the season. 

The big question is this: what do you think of this proposed lineup?

Thank you for the question! If anyone has a question for us, just go to ask.fm/climbingtalshill and we’ll let you know what we think!