BASEBALL LENS
All 30 everyday lineups ranked by OPS: at each of the nine spots — catcher through designated hitter — the man who has started there most over the last 30 days, then the nine pooled into a single on-base plus slugging. Not a team average: the bench is out, this is the lineup that actually takes the field. Tap a team for the full card — and where a spot is really being shared, or the man behind it is swinging a better bat, tap the hitter to unfold the understudy.
Positions come from each hitter's primary position, so a utility man appears at the spot he is listed for. Where a club has no regular at a spot, the outfield slots fall back to the next most-used outfielder and the DH to the most-used bat still unplaced. A backup is only offered where he has started at least 5 games with 60 plate appearances behind him and either takes 40% of the spot's starts or out-hits the man ahead of him by .080 of OPS — most spots have no such man, and those say nothing. Backups never count toward the lineup's OPS. Season totals are a hitter's full year, so a bat traded in July carries the numbers he put up elsewhere.