In a message of  to James Dunlop (1:3641/1.206), 
you wrote:
 TM> I suppose sixth wouldn't be bad, though that would necessitate bumping
 TM> down (or up, I suppose, though that's unlikely) either Klesko or Lopez,
 TM> depending upon what side of the mound the pitcher is throwing from.  I'd
 TM> rather have one of those guys at #6.
Klesko deserves to be 3-4-5.  He is a far better hitter than a healthy David 
Justice.  I really shouldn't be too hard on Cox here.  His lineup order 
choices are limited.  There really isn't anybody better suited to leadoff, 
though I might give Chipper a try there, and move Klesko to the three hole.
 JD> Although I'm not fond of Grissom's type of offense, he is at the top of
 JD> the pile, similar to Lou Brock.
 TM> Not sure what you mean by "top of the pile."
Let's see, I compared him to a Hall of Famer.   "Top of the group of 
similar players", how's that?
 TM> I don't know what Lemke's OBP is, but I like him at #2.  He's very
 TM> unselfish and he makes excellent contact.  And, his BA is pretty good,
 TM> too.
Lemke has made himself into a very decent offensive player.  From yesterday's 
paper, he's hitting .272 with a .353 OBP.  It's certainly better for a player 
like Lemke, who can get on base pretty well, but has little power, to be up 
BEFORE the Joneses, McGriffs and Kleskos, rather than wasting his major 
offensive talent batting behind them.
 JD> The best pair at the top of the lineup I've seen in a while was Rickey
 JD> Henderson and Willie Randolph for the Yankees in the mid-'80s. A huge
 JD> reason Don Mattingly was MVP material in '86.
 TM> Yeah, that was quite a combo, but the fact that you're talking about a
 TM> tandem from ~10 years ago suggests that it's a lot easier to find a good
 TM> contact guy for the #2 spot.
Agreed, I was blanking out on recent examples.  The Blue Jays would have had 
a great top of the lineup, had they moved Devon White (a Grissom type) to the 
sixth hole, and had the top five Molitor, Alomar, Olerud, Carter, and their 
third baseman (why am I blanking out, ah, Kelly Gruber).  They would have 
scored many more runs with Olerud and Molitor hitting in FRONT of Joe Carter 
rather than behind.  People say it doesn't matter since they won anyway, but 
it really does.  The Rockies, with Young and Weiss at the top, and Castilla 
lower, have their lineup "right".  
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