Game 5 lineup shuffle?

[pecas]

Given it's a "no tomorrow" game, and understanding that probably this will never happen, I would go with:

Swanson
Albies
Acuna
Donaldson
Freeman
Duvall
McCann
Joyce
Folty

Swanson didn't do bad at #1 spot in the final games of the season and is red hot. Acuna can be our #3, FF is slumping big time and would have less pressure to swing at everything, but would still be a threat protecting Acuna and JD.

I opted to leave BMac there to have some righty/lefty alternance, with Markakis out.

In my mind, this is the starting lineup giving us the best chance, but what do I know.

[Hudson2]

There is 0% chance that Snit changes anything.

[striker42]

I'd seriously consider sitting Freeman.

[Carp]

I'd seriously consider sitting Freeman.

Lol, and go with who? Not only are you giving up his defense, but no one on the bench is likely to do any better than Freeman. As bad as he's been offensively, Neck and JD have been just as bad.


The person that needs to sit is clearly Mac. But I'm guessing he calls the best game or whatever, so it's unlikely to happen. Next on the sit list is Neck or Joyce and replace them with Duval. I tend to go Joyce because he has killed righties this year and is more likely to at least draw a walk.

[striker42]

Lol, and go with who? Not only are you giving up his defense, but no one on the bench is likely to do any better than Freeman. As bad as he's been offensively, Neck and JD have been just as bad.


The person that needs to sit is clearly Mac. But I'm guessing he calls the best game or whatever, so it's unlikely to happen. Next on the sit list is Neck or Joyce and replace them with Duval. I tend to go Joyce because he has killed righties this year and is more likely to at least draw a walk.

I'm concerned about his elbow. He claims it hasn't had an impact but I think he just doesn't want to sound like he's making excuses. If it's his elbow, he's going to keep getting exploited by the Cards pitchers.

If his elbow is actually fine, you stick with him.

[pecas]

I think the only way Freeman would sit is if he says he's not good to go.
If he says he's fine, true or not, Snitker will go with him. And, honestly, I would too.
A lineup position swap, by the way, could be beneficial.

[Carp]

I'm concerned about his elbow. He claims it hasn't had an impact but I think he just doesn't want to sound like he's making excuses. If it's his elbow, he's going to keep getting exploited by the Cards pitchers.

If his elbow is actually fine, you stick with him.

If he was hurt enough to not play, he wouldn't be out there. As it stands, even if he is a little injured, we have no one to take his place who is likely to do any better than 80% percent Freeman. If we had Riley on the team, I might consider it, because there's a decent chance Riley will guess right on a pitch and demolish it and Riley has played the most 1b of any player not named Freeman in 2019. But we don't and no one else on the team has any meaningful experience playing 1b. It would likely be a disaster is epic proportions.

[Slippyjms]

Given it's a "no tomorrow" game, and understanding that probably this will never happen, I would go with:

Swanson
Albies
Acuna
Donaldson
Freeman
Duvall
McCann
Joyce
Folty

Swanson didn't do bad at #1 spot in the final games of the season and is red hot. Acuna can be our #3, FF is slumping big time and would have less pressure to swing at everything, but would still be a threat protecting Acuna and JD.

I opted to leave BMac there to have some righty/lefty alternance, with Markakis out.

In my mind, this is the starting lineup giving us the best chance, but what do I know.

Id go a slightly different direction

Swanson
Acuna
Albies
Donaldson
Freeman
Joyce
Flowers
Hamilton

Neck is giving us nothing but i'd also like to keep Duvall for high leverage PH situations so I'm going with Hamilton for the defense. McCann isn't helping with the bat either so lets use Flowers and have McCann available as a lefty bat off the bench.