Below is our lineup versus right-handed pitching. The Opening Day starters are listed on the left. As you can see, only three are currently in the lineup, although Mahdi should return in a couple of sims, giving us four.
Calvin Johnson, our All-Star catcher, who has been a roughly league-average hitter for us during the first three seasons of his contract, is hitting to a 24 OPS+ so far this season in just under 100 plate appearances. That's .149/.208/.230. No amount of framing is going to make up for that. He's been benched in favor of Delgado, who was supposed to be his once every five days backup.
Miggy Martinez, our All-Star second baseman, is out for the season. Each of the last two seasons, he posted 5+ WAR. We've called up prospect Bill Atkinson from AA to play second.
Our Gold Glove shortstop, Qutuz Mahdi has been out for a month, and our bench middle infielder (Rudy) has been filling in for him.
We moved our left fielder Lopez to right field in hopes that Hamza bin Uthman was ready, but he was sent back to AAA for more seasoning. In his place, we called up journeyman Tom Jacobs, who is hitting an unsustainable .404.
We thought we had a decent answer in center field with the aging Michel Noel, but he put up numbers only slightly better than Calvin's. We called up prospect Clancy Lee from AAA, who is really a LF but he's the best we've got.
At DH, we hoped that Lineu Aldo could finish his walk year there after his defensive skills fell off a cliff, but he appears to be done. We traded him and sincerely hope that he gets his 3000th hit someplace. After a couple of misfires, we may have found our DH in a trade. Don Moore had hit well for San Fernando in the past, but he got waived after starting the season with a 43 OPS+. He's a natural fit for our park, and so far he's hitting to a 147 OPS+ for us after two sims.
In summary, our current lineup includes 3 Opening Day starters, two prospects called up before we planned to, a journeyman who was an offseason MiLB depth signing, two supposed-to-be-bench players, and a veteran who came over in trade.
VERSUS RHP
| POS | OPENING DAY | STATS | MID-JUNE | STATS | NOTES |
| C | Calvin Johnson | .149 BA | Felipe Delgado | 107 OPS+ | Johnson benched |
| 1B | Leonardo Rodriguez | 129 OPS+ | Leonardo Rodriguez | 2058 Rule 5 | |
| 2B | Miguel Martinez | IL60 | Bill Atkinson | 121 OPS+ in 67 PA | Miggy out for season, Atkinson up from AA |
| 3B | Eduardo Gonzalez | 138 OPS+ | Eduardo Gonzalez | Steady Eddie | |
| SS | Qutuz Mahdi | 120 OPS+ | Aniruddha Meenakshisundaram | 83 OPS+ | Mahdi returning soon after month's injury |
| LF | Hamza bin Uthman | 67 OPS+ | Antonio Lopez | 87 OPS+ | Lopez returned to his natural position |
| CF | Michel Noel | 28 OPS+ | Clancy Lee | 121 OPS+ | Noel released, Lee up from AAA |
| RF | Antonio Lopez | 87 OPS+ | Tom Jacobs | .404 BA in 64 PA | Jacobs was a MiLB offseason signing |
| DH | Lineu Aldo | Traded w/85 OPS+ | Don Moore | 147 OPS+ after 2 sims | Moore benefiting from change of scenery |
Our lineup against southpaws has undergone similar retooling. Only four Opening Day starters are in the current lineup, but Mahdi's return will soon make that five.
Bill Atkinson, who was called up to replace Miggy, slides over to shortstop in this lineup, with the veteran Bob Irwin called up from AAA to man the keystone. Either Atkinson or Irwin will get sent down when Mahdi returns.
Thus, our four Opening Day starters are joined against lefties by two prospects, two journeymen, and a supposed-to-be-bench catcher.
VERSUS LHP
| POS | OPENING DAY | STATS | MID-JUNE | STATS | NOTES |
| C | Calvin Johnson | .149 BA | Felipe Delgado | 107 OPS+ | |
| 1B | Dan WIlkinson | 117 OPS+ vLHP | Dan Wilkinson | Rookie | |
| 2B | Miguel Martinez | IL60 | Bob Irwin | AAA call-up | |
| 3B | Eduardo Gonzalez | 138 OPS+ | Eduardo Gonzalez | ||
| SS | Qutuz Mahdi | 120 OPS+ | Bill Atkinson | 121 OPS+ in 67 PA | |
| LF | Antonio Lopez | 87 OPS+ | Antonio Lopez | ||
| CF | Michel Noel | 28 OPS+ | Clancy Lee | 121 OPS+ | |
| RF | James Belinda | 87 OPS+ | Tom Jacobs | .404 BA in 64 PA | |
| DH | Mike LeBlanc | 119 OPS+ | Mike LeBlanc |
The good news is that our great free agent spending spree when we took over Montreal is almost off the books. We have one more year of Eduardo Gonzalez, who just keeps hitting like the Energizer bunny at age 38, with two team options. He costs us $12.6 million, which is a bargain. We have Mahdi under contract for one more year after this at roughly $10 million. Miggy got a big raise through arbitration last season, but probably won't see much of a raise beyond his $8.8 million. That's it for the big salaries. Our catcher, Johnson, has a team option for $14.6, but exercising that seems like a bad idea.
Our attendance is down about 9% even after slashing ticket prices, so our budget next season is likely to decrease. Projections show about an $8 million decrease in revenues if you ignore last season's playoff revenue. We've been adding seats to our stadium and plan to max it out next offseason to 65,000 seats. Like everyone else, our expenses took a hit with the new Development budget. Even with all of these factors, we should be a major player in free agency next season if the right players are available.
Meanwhile, we've got our eyes on that last wildcard berth.
