My Team For This Year: Lineup

I often think about what I would do as the General Manager or Manager of the Pirates and here are my thoughts on this year's team:
2011-Lineup:
1. Jose Tabata RF
2. Alex Presley LF
3. Neil Walker 2B
4. Andrew McCutchen CF
5. Derrek Lee 1B
6. Ryan Doumit C
7. Pedro Alvarez 3B
8. Ronny Cedeno SS

I have Tabata leading off and I'm sure that Clint Hurdle would have him there as well if he was healthy. Clint Has has Presley in left as he should so no complaints there. Neil Walker should be batting third because you should have a solid hitter in that spot, but not your best and Neil fits the mold pretty well.  Next up in my order would be Andrew McCutchen in the cleanup role.  Cutch has emerged as a serious power threat and this is the best spot for him at the moment.  Batting 5th is Derrek Lee and the tall first basemen has all the qualities neccessary to be in this spot.  Batting 6th at catcher is Ryan Doumit.  Doumit is a good hitter when healthy and is truly the pirates best catching option at this point.  That being said, the Pirates should look elsewhere for next year because of his poor defense and his inabililty to stay healthy.  However, he is only marginally worse defensively than Mike McKenry, in my opinion, and his offense is far better than McKenry's so its an easy call for me.  Batting 7th at third base is probably the toughest decision, but I ultimately went with Pedro Alvarez.  Pedro has the most potential in the lineup, so with the team far out of contention, it is in the team's best long term interest to gert Pedro as much playing time as possible to work things out going into next year.  Batting 8th at shortstop is an easy call for me as I believe that Ronny Cedeno should have that spot locked up for this year and next.  Clint Hurdle clearly does not agree with me, but the fact is that Ronny is a slightly above average defensive shortstop and a slightly below average offensive shortstop on a well below average team so there is no doubt in my mind that he should be starting at Shortstop.  The fact is that the Pirates also have no better internal options, with the closest replacement option being Chase D'Arnaud, and he has struggled in all facets of the game since he has been in the Major Leagues. 

I will continue this series looking at this year and next years teams soon!