Major League Baseball

Cardinals exploring a new approach

Published May. 19, 2015 2:20 p.m. ET

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Every team has a different philosophy when it comes to lineup construction and although there are some prevailing schools of thought, there are no set rules on where certain types of players should hit.

The Cardinals have been tinkering around with the top of the lineup recently and manager Mike Matheny said the team will continue to do so as they play around with some different ideas.

“I think you can look at it this way: There is the prototypical leadoff hitter. He works the counts. He gets on base. He fights off a lot of pitches,” Matheny told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “That’s your typical guy. Now, do we have that guy? You look at it and say [Matt Carpenter] kind of fits that, but we see him needed somewhere else. After that, how else can you look at that No. 1 spot? Well, you can look at it as what guy is really taking good at-bats? Get him up there as often as possible. It’s another way of thinking about that position.”

The leadoff batter gets the most at-bats in a lineup so putting one of the team's hottest hitters in the slot seems to make a lot of sense. And while Matheny will continue to try different players at the leadoff spot, he has not ruled out the possibility of putting Carpenter back into that role.

“We’re not going to say that we’re not going to ever put Matt back there,” Matheny said. “Whether we have that perfect kind of guy is really not the focus as it’s really who is swinging the bat well right now? Who looks comfortable and how many times can we get them up there? That’s going to be the goal. … We’ll keep feeling our way through it and hopefully somebody will take advantage of it or at least nightly someone will take advantage of it.”

As of now, all options are on the table and considering the length of a baseball season, it's certainly not a bad idea to mix things up for a little bit.

(h/t St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Photo Credit: Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

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