No matter how they order it, the Detroit Tigers will have one of the best 3-4 lineup combinations in baseball. They already had Miguel Cabrera batting fourth last season behind Magglio Ordonez. Mags won’t be back, but they are replacing him with Prince Fielder.
During an interview with ESPN’s Karl Ravech Thursday, Prince said he’d prefer to bat in front of Miggy. He likely prefers to bat third because the guy hitting in front has the protection and generally sees better pitches.
Unfortunately for Prince, it does not look like he’ll get his preference. Tigers manager Jim Leyland already has a batting lineup in mind:
- 1. Austin Jackson
2. Brennan Boesch
3. Miggy Cabrera
4. Prince Fielder
5. Delmon Young
6. Alex Avila
7. Jhonny Peralta
8. Andy Dirks, Clete Thomas, or Don Kelly
9. Ryan Rayburn
Outside of Cabrera and Prince, it’s not too intimidating, but they should have enough support to put up some good numbers. The thing that worries me about the rest of their lineup is that many of their guys had career seasons last year (Avila, Peralta, Boesch) and I’d be worried about a natural dropoff in production.
