May 12, 2014

Interleague Report

Week Seven

by Jeff Quinton

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Please note that in the “DH” column, the player listed is the player that has been added or removed from the lineup, not necessarily the player in the DH slot. For example, if the Phillies move Dominic Brown to DH and put Tony Gwynn Jr. in the OF, then I will list Gwynn Jr. in the “DH” column because he is the player that is gaining at bats.

Last Week

AL at NL:

Away	Opponent (Games)	R/L Faced	DH
TOR	PHI (2)	1R, 1L	Tolleson
CHW	CHC (2)	2R	Dunn/Konerko
TEX	COL (2)	2R	Moreland/Choice
KC	SD (3)	1R, 2L	Butler
NYY	MIL (3)	3R	Soriano/OF

Toronto moved Lawrie to second base for the first game, and then he hurt his hamstring. Steve Tolleson started at second in game two of the series in Lawrie’s absence.

Adam Dunn and the newly acquired Moises Sierra each played a game in the outfield, while Dayan Viciedo and Alejandro De Aza started both games.

Absent the DH, and with Shin-Soo Choo healthy, Michael Choice and Mitch Moreland were both relegated to bench duties.

The Royals went with Eric Hosmer at first base for all three games, meaning Billy Butler made no progress in his quest for fantasy positional eligibility.

Alfonso Soriano was a bench bat for all three games due to the right-handedness of the Brewers’ pitchers. Carlos Beltran got a rest for the Sunday game, but he was replaced by Ichiro Suzuki.

NL at AL:

Away	Opponent (Games)	R/L Faced	DH
PHI	TOR (2)	2R	Galvis/Nix
CHC	CHW (2)	1R, 1L	Valbuena/Coghlan
COL	TEX (2)	1R, 1L	Barnes/Stubbs
CIN	BOS (1)	1R	Bernadina
ARI	CHW (3)	1R, 2L	Chavez/Marte
WAS	OAK (3)	1R, 2L	Frandsen/Walters/Hairston

Jimmy Rollins got both starts at DH with Jayson Nix starting at shortstop against the lefty and Freddy Galvis starting at shortstop against the righty.

Luis Valbuena got a rare start at third base against a lefty with Mike Olt moving to DH. Against the righty, Chris Coghlan got a start at DH.

Brandon Barnes got a start in the outfield against the lefty with Carlos Gonzalez moving to DH. Drew Stubbs got a rare start against a righty, moving Chris Dickerson to DH.

With both Jay Bruce and Billy Hamilton sidelined the Reds started an outfield of Chris Heisey, Skip Schumaker, and Roger Bernadina, while Ryan Ludwick moved to DH.

Eric Chavez got both starts at DH against the righties and Alfredo Marte started at DH against the lefty.

After demoting Tyler Moore, the Nationals gave Adam LaRoche a start at DH against a lefty with Kevin Frandsen starting at first base. Against the righty, Jayson Werth got a semi-break at DH with Kevin Walters starting in leftfield. After moving LaRoche to the DL on Sunday and recalling Tyler Moore, Moore got the start at first base against the lefty with Scott Hairston starting at DH.

This Week

AL at NL:

Away	Opponent (Games)	R/L Faced	DH
LAA	PHI (2)	1R, 1L	Ibanez/Navarro/Cron
NYY	NYM (2)	2R	Soriano/OF

I think we see Raul Ibanez in the outfield against the righty and Efren Navarro against the lefty. Without the DH, newly called-up C.J. Cron will be on the bench.

Similar to the Yankees’ bullet in “This Week,” my guess is that Alfonso Soriano is the odd man out for both games.

NL at AL:

Away	Opponent (Games)	R/L Faced	DH
NYM	NYY (2)	1R, 1L	OF/Duda
PIT	NYY (3)	2R, 1L	Davis/Sanchez
COL	KCR (2)	1R, 1L	Barnes/Stubbs/Culberson

Against the righty, I think the Mets start all four outfielders by giving Eric Young Jr. a start at second base, with Daniel Murphy moving to DH or simply moving one of the outfielders to DH. The simpler and more likely option (thanks commentor NYCRuss) is to start three of the usual outfielders and DH Bobby Abreu. Against the lefty, my guess is that both Josh Satin and Lucas Duda start.

Give what we saw two weeks ago, it looks like we will see Ike Davis and Gaby Sanchez both starting in some combination of first base and DH.

If last week was any indication, Brandon Barnes gets an extra start against the lefty with Drew Stubbs getting the extra run against the righty. I could also see Charlie Culberson getting a start with Troy Tulowitzki getting a day at DH.

Next Week

AL at NL:

Away	Opponent (Games)	R/L Faced	DH
BAL	PIT (2)	2L	Lough/Pearce/Young/Markakis
NYY	CHC (2)	2R	Soriano/OF
MIN	SD (2), SF (3)	4R, 1L	Pinto/Suzuki

It looks like we will be getting Nelson Cruz in the outfield for both games. If the Orioles want to give Nick Markakis a day off against one of the lefties, then we will see either Steve Pearce or Delmon Young in the outfield. Otherwise, Pearce and Young will be on the bench.

When the Yankees play at National League parks in 2014, they tend to play against righties. This means Alfonso Soriano sits, unless Joe Girardi wants to give him a start against his old squad at his old stomping grounds. We will monitor the words Girardi says to see if this will be the case.

Josmil Pinto has been getting a lot of run as a DH this year, but it looks like he will have to split duties with Kurt Suzuki in order for the Twins to comply with National League rules. My guess is that Pinto gets two starts with Suzuki getting the other three.

NL at AL: None

Jeff Quinton is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @jjq01
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