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Projected 2013 White Sox Opening Day batting order

Most of the pieces fall into place without thinking, but the middle of the order might need some tweaking

By Jim Margalus
USA TODAY Sports

There's an odd brief, uncredited article on whitesox.com that links to the Opening Day lineup. Can it be trusted? Well, it's the same lineup Robin Ventura used for the last game of spring training, so maybe it wasn't just Chris Sale's time to prepare for Monday.

Anyway, this is your "projected" lineup for April 1:

  1. Alejandro De Aza, CF
  2. Jeff Keppinger, 3B
  3. Alex Rios, RF
  4. Adam Dunn, DH
  5. Paul Konerko, 1B
  6. Dayan Viciedo, LF
  7. Alexei Ramirez, SS
  8. Tyler Flowers, C
  9. Gordon Beckham, 2B

Back in February, Larry made the case that Dunn should bat fifth, as research showed that Dunn offers the least reason for baserunners to steal, which would negate some of Rios' value. Without digging deep, it's a little off-putting to have a guy with a second-half line of .199/.302/.427 batting cleanup. There's nothing saying Ventura can't drop Dunn down in the order, but Ventura was extremely hesitant to deviate from the original plan in that respect last year. Perhaps that's part of his learning experience.

Otherwise, this lineup was pretty much set the day the Sox signed Jeff Keppinger and his adept bat-handling. There's a real lack of OBP in the second half if nobody takes a step forward, but that's the chance the Sox have to take.

Any other reactions to this?

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