The Braves begin their new postseason quest tonight, I just hope they get more hits than the Reds did last night (a lot more). Let's take a look at the projected lineups for each team versus tonight's starting pitchers. Again, these are not the official lineups, but my best guess as to what they will look like:
| Braves vs. Tim Lincecum | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| Omar Infante, 3B | 11 | 11 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .364 | .364 | .455 | .818 |
| Jason Heyward, RF | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .200 | .333 | .400 | .733 |
| Derrek Lee, 1B | 17 | 16 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | .375 | .412 | .500 | .912 |
| Brian McCann, C | 22 | 21 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 7 | .381 | .409 | .667 | 1.076 |
| Alex Gonzalez, SS | 7 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | .429 | .429 | .857 | 1.286 |
| Nate McLouth, LF | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .167 | .167 | .333 | .500 |
| Brooks Conrad, 2B | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Rick Ankiel, CF | 12 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | .182 | .250 | .273 | .523 |
Yes, small sample sizes they are, but at least it's good to see that most of these guys have at least faced Lincecum. Because of his whip-like motion he can be tough to pick up for hitters who have never faced him before. Not only have many of our batters seen a good deal of Lincecum, but about half of them have had some success off of him. He's still as tough as they come.
My intuition tells me that we'll need to get to Lincecum early in the game when he might be more amped up (this is his first postseason game, after all), and get an early lead and try to hold onto it before he settles into his rhythm. Easier said than done.
The rest of the Braves lineup versus Lincecum, and the Giants lineup versus Lowe are after the jump...
| Braves vs. Tim Lincecum | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| Melky Cabrera | 6 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .167 | .167 | .167 | .333 |
| Eric Hinske | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | .200 | .333 | .800 | 1.133 |
| Martin Prado | 6 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .333 | .333 | .500 | .833 |
| Diory Hernandez | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .250 | .250 | .250 | .500 |
| Matt Diaz | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .333 | .333 | .333 | .667 |
| Troy Glaus | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | .667 | 2.000 | 2.667 |
Even Diory has a hit off of him!
Here is my projected Giants lineup versus Derek Lowe:
| Giants vs. Derek Lowe | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| Andres Torres, CF | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .667 | .750 | 1.000 | 1.750 |
| Freddy Sanchez, 2B | 17 | 17 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .176 | .176 | .176 | .353 |
| Aubrey Huff, 1B | 40 | 38 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 2 | .263 | .300 | .500 | .800 |
| Buster Posey, C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Pat Burrell, LF | 22 | 21 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | .333 | .364 | .429 | .792 |
| Juan Uribe, SS | 8 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | .500 | .625 | .667 | 1.292 |
| Jose Guillen, RF | 20 | 19 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | .158 | .200 | .158 | .358 |
| Pablo Sandoval, 3B | 10 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .400 | .400 | .400 | .800 |
A smattering of success, and a great deal of familiarity between Lowe and Huff. This will be a tough lineup, even with some of these guys slumping at the end of the season. Here are the reserves:
| Giants vs. Derek Lowe | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| Aaron Rowand | 27 | 23 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 | .478 | .556 | .522 | 1.077 |
| Edgar Renteria | 17 | 16 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | .250 | .294 | .313 | .607 |
| Cody Ross | 13 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | .300 | .462 | .400 | .862 |
| Mike Fontenot | 11 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | .400 | .400 | .600 | 1.000 |
| Travis Ishikawa | 9 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .111 | .111 | .222 | .333 |
| Eli Whiteside | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Nate Schierholtz | 5 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .200 | .200 | .200 | .400 |
| Eugenio Velez | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .500 | .600 | .750 | 1.350 |
Even with the season-long slump, Rowand will be on the postseason roster. Does Bochy dare start him against Lowe? Overall I wonder if any of these stats against Lowe matter with the way Lowe is pitching lately. He's been a different pitcher with his modified delivery, so that may play differently to many of these Giants hitters.
Gonna be a crazy day.