Melvin Shakes Up Lineup for Opening Day
April 5, 2009 by AZ Hardball
Monday April 6th, the Diamondbacks will be facing the Colorado Rockies for opening day for the 2009 baseball season. In a last minute move, Bob Melvin injected his starting day line up with lefties. The decision comes as a reaction to the assignment of Colorado’s Aaron Cook to get the nod to start the game for the Rockies. Justin Upton and Mark Reynolds will sit out on opening day in the strategic, relatively, last minute move.
Taking those spots for the D-backs will be Tony Clark and Eric Byrnes. The infield will be shuffled just a tad to move Chad Tracy to third to allow switch-hitting Tony Clark to play first base. Manager Melvin reinforced that we was not trying to send any type of message to any of his players, namely Upton who had a slow spring. Bob Melvin’s strategy comes as an effort to play the lineup that makes the best sense for the given situation.
Upton is my favorite player and I think he is going to be great, but looking at his numbers this spring i question if he shouldnt be starting in tucson to get his confidence back