Lineup when Smith gets back

I feel like the best lineup has Slaughter at 1B....but I can't justify that right now with him struggling.

Im hitting cabrera in right field, dups in left with beau dh. I also have slaughter on the bench with reid at 3rd and smith at short

You’re not worried about Smith defensively at short? I, unfortunately, didn’t catch very much of the first couple games but didn’t he boot a few routine balls?

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That would mean taking Bain out of the lineup though

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I go back and forth on whether I want Bain in the lineup. If he is going to be your closer then you can’t have him at DH. And if he’s in your lineup you have to protect him and try to get him to see fastballs.

I think smith will end up being a very good defensive shortstop. We havent seen him play the position much

He was just SO good at 3rd last year, I think everyone naturally wants to put him back there.

Josh Smith - 3B
Brant Broussard - 2B
Antoine Duplantis - RF
Zach Watson - CF
Beau Jordan - LF
Bryce Jordan - 1B
Austin Bain - DH
Hunter Feduccia - C
Hal Hughes - SS

Kill it baw!

In all honesty these threads are useless. We’ll play a couple of SEC weekends before Josh is back and it will work itself out in those weekends. I think the only guys that have locked up spots for sure are:

Watson
Duplantiss
Smith
Hunter

The rest of the INF will consist of Hughes, Bain, Broussard, Bryce and Slaughter

Then Webre, Beau, Cabrera will all battle for the spot in the outfield

If i were a betting man I would say right now PM is looking at

C-Hunter
1B- Slaughter
2B- Broussard
SS- Hughes
3B- Josh
LF- Beau
CF- Watson
RF- Duplantis
DH- Bryce

I also think he’ll rotate in Webre and Cabrera and use Bain as a PH.

With that said I have full faith that PM know 100x more than me and he’ll get it right. He always does.

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You’re not worried about Smith defensively at short? I, unfortunately, didn’t catch very much of the first couple games but didn’t he boot a few routine balls?

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Yes, he did. But we have an entire year - and CPM has tons of practice - to go on. Smith has a good glove. Booting balls is a fluke with him; it's not something that will keep happening.

The real concern with Smith at SS is range. It can't be proved with statistics, but Hughes is a better defensive SS. However, Smith is a much better batter. Don't be fooled by Hughes' 300 average; when the pitching gets better he will be exposed.

When Smith gets back CPM needs to keep Smith in the lineup and keep rotating Bryce, Beau, and Slaughter among 1st, 3rd (Slaughter) and DH. Meanwhile he should put Hughes at SS, and move Smith to third, every few games. Two thirds of the way through the season he needs to pick winners and go with it. Maybe a guy like Hughes will fix his approach, or Slaughter will start seeing the curve balls.

lol at Hughes over Smith at SS