Throughout the last number of seasons, the Braves lineup building has actually been a fiercely discussed subject. Supervisor Brian Snitker has a really standard way of doing things, or at least that is his instinct, and that has actually led a lot of people to see previous lineups as less than optimal. Place all of your Ender at leadoff and Nick Markakis bats 5th every day jokes.
For Miami, they are defending prime playoff seeding … god it feels weird to be typing that about the Marlins in 2020 … and hanging on to the slim chances of chasing after down the Braves for the department title. Their lineups only swaps Garrett Cooper and Jesus Aguilar from the one last night.
However, this season has been different. There hasnt been any fiddling with Ronald Acuna Jr. batting leadoff for great reason, we have seen Freddie Freeman went up to the 2 spot in the lineup for a while now, and we have seen a lot of excellent choices being made on a day to day basis concerning playing matches, and so on rather than just relying on vets blindly to figure it out in unfavorable scenarios.
Case in point … the usage of Nick Markakis. As soon as Markakis decided back in, lots of believed that he was simply going to be slotted in the 5th area every single day and this was only enhanced when he came back and started hot. The Braves have not actually utilized him versus lefties and he has seen his playing time managed pretty aggressively in recent weeks. Now, versus a righty, Markakis goes back to the lineup and is batting 7th which is … perfectly fine. The remainder of the lineup is what you would expect to see on many nights.
