Constructing a Lineup

Robinson Cano went 4-4 yesterday, so it's hard to say after that game that he shouldn't be hitting 5th in the lineup...but I'm going to anyways. Robinson Cano is a very good player, but he shouldn't be hitting 5th. Just simple math. His OBP is 3.39. That is the worst OBP of any qualified player on their team. Cano's slugging is .504, which ranks 5th, but Jorge Posada has a higher OBP and SLG and for some reason is hitting behind Cano? What sense does this make?

Some people criticized Swisher hitting in the two-hole for a few games, but he actually has the highest OBP of any player on the team and also sees the most pitches of anyone on the team...Cano is just the opposite. And wouldn't you want your best OBP guy hitting in front of Mark Teixeira, your best SLG guy? And wouldn't you want Cano, while a fine BA guy, horrible with OBP, hitting further down in this lineup?

I'm not saying that Cano should be dropped to the bottom of the order, but why not flip-flop Posada and Cano? The reasoning is that Girardi doesn't want two lefties back-to-back but that's just crap. You can move Swisher up to 7th and Matsui down to 8th (which should probably be done regardless since Swisher is a better hitter) or you can accept that fact the Matsui is actually a much better hitter against lefties this year (.780 OPS vs. .975 OPS) and Cano is better against lefties as well (.816 vs. .912).

And the Yankees aren't the only ones with this idiocracy. And the two teams I've seen recently are a lot stupider about it. The Mets hit David Wright 5th. David Wright leads the NL in OBP. Carlos Beltran has a higher SLG. The Mets struggle to score runs. Why, oh why wouldn't you hit Wright third and Beltran 4th? Jerry Manuel started this way earlier in the season...but for some reason, with a worse lineup, decided to move him down to 5th? Stupidity.

The Nationals came into Yankee Stadium last night. Elijah Dukes was hitting 4th. Adam Dunn was hitting 5th. Dukes' line is .253/.316/.451 and Dunn's is .258/.393/.525. Constructing a baseball lineup is a pretty simple thing: you want your best hitters getting more ABs (in the same way, you don't put Joba Chamberlain in the bullpen for the sole reason you want your better pitchers pitching more innings). Dukes actually is worse with men on base (.229/.295/.354). So why would you bat Dukes 4th?