People who love surprises should check out the Yankees’ lineup each night. The batting order has dozens of permutations and it feels as if anyone could be slotted in to play any position in any given game.
The most baffling aspect of it all? The Yankees don’t always play their best healthy players whenever they can and at every possible opportunity. The team practices a philosophy of keeping with players’ previously scheduled off days in lieu of automatically putting their biggest bats in the lineup. This past week, the Yankees both played a weaker player over a more skilled one (when Mike Ford started at first base) and used players in positions they don’t regularly play, even when doing so wasn’t absolutely necessary.