What Will Be The 2013 Mets Lineup?

Vs. RHP: Tejada, Murphy, Wright, Ike, Buck, Duda, Kirk, Baxter? // RT @asprach: What does full lineup look like, do you think?

— Adam Rubin (@AdamRubinESPN) January 15, 2013

Vs. LHP: Cowgill, Murphy, Wright, Hairston*, Davis, Buck, Duda, Tejada?

— Adam Rubin (@AdamRubinESPN) January 15, 2013

With Spring Training getting closer and closer, the look of the Mets still seems somewhat incomplete. But, as you see with the two tweets with Adam Rubin, it can be fun to predict what the Mets team could look like for the upcoming season.

Of course, the question of this post was “What will be the 2013 Mets Lineup” but you could make an arguement that the real question may just be, could that actually be the lineups?

The assumption that Rubin makes is that Scott Hairston is the starter and that the Mets, in 1969 like fashion have a couple of platoons, both in the outfield this time, in Center and Right Field.

Now, the Left-Handed Lineup is interesting because it has Colin Cowgill, playing Center Field and leading off. Now, if Ruben Tejada is good enough to bat against right handers in the lead-off spot, you would think Terry Collins would at least give him a chance to prove he can do it against lefties. I also believe you could get away with a 3-4-5-6 where Murphy is your 3 and Wright hits cleanup.

So in my opinion against LHP’s, I would try a lineup of:

1. Tejada
2. Cowgill
3. Murphy
4. Wright
5. Davis
6. Hairston
7. Duda
8. Buck.

I like to split the righties and lefties and let Murphy get more chances to drive in runs, which I believe is more his forte than helping be a table setter.

Now against Right-Handers, things are different because the power you get from Hairston is replaced by the less powerful Mike Baxter.

I think Baxter, who is in the lineup playing Right Field instead of Scott Hairston, is a better top of the order guy than hitting 8th. He can work out a walk, swings a solid bat, and although the speed is ok at best, he isn’t a horrible base runner.

Now to split up the lefties, I’m going to bat Tejada in the 2nd spot. Now of course I made the point earlier that Tejada could bat lead off against both lefties and righties, but I would not want Baxter and Murphy back to back, so that’s where Tejada splitting them up helps.

Now the one issue to my plan is that with the excess of left handed hitters in this lineup, we have to have lefties hit back to back in one spot in the order. I choose to with the power duo of Duda and Davis over Duda and Nieuwenhuis at the bottom of the order. The reason for that is because of the lack of contact is greater right now with Kirk than it is with Ike considering Duda is the constant in both situation.

So in my opinion against RHP’s, I would try a lineup of:

1. Baxter
2. Tejada
3. Murphy
4. Wright
5. Davis
6. Duda
7. Buck
8. Nieuwenhuis

Now, I think of all the debates you can have about a team, the way a lineup is constituted is right at the top between fans.

So what do you think? What would you change? Why would you not change it? Tell me what you think the lineup for the 2013 Mets should be in the comments below.