Okay, fans, it’s time to play that Hot stove game we call “guess the lineup”?

The Yankees lose two, probably three main starters from last year’s lineup. Matsui is gone, signed with the Angels, Melky Cabrera is gone, by trade, and likely Johnny Damon is gone, since the Yankees say they won’t meet his agent’s asking price.

With the acquisition of Curtis Granderson they fill the center field vacancy, and Nick Johnson appears to come in at full-time DH. That leaves at the moment Brett Gardner to start in left field and hit in the nine hole.

My two main questions on the batting order are who hits behind A-Rod? And how to the lefty-righty splits of some of these players affect things? Does Jeter keep the lead-off job?

Let’s say that he does. How about this against right-handed pitching:

Jeter
Granderson
Teixeira
A-Rod
Posada
Cano
Johnson
Swisher
Gardner

This way against left-handed pitching:

Jeter
Johnson
Teixeria
A-Rod
Cano
Posada
Granderson
Swisher
Gardner

Posada slugs better against righties, whereas Cano is better against lefties. Granderson has meager numbers against lefties, something that hitting coach Kevin Long will supposedly be working on fixing this off season and in spring training, but don’t expect a complete makeover.

I do wonder if we’ll see Swisher blossom into more of a force, given the adjustments he made during the World Series last year, and according to MLB.com has continued to work on.

Some numbers from Baseball-Reference.com:

Curtis Granderson L/R Splits 2009:
Split     G  PA   AB   H   2B 3B HR RBI SB CS  BB SO  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS  TB  IBB BAbip
vs RHP   144 511  451  124 19  8 28  62  0  0  57 99 .275 .358 .539 .897 243   4  .295
vs LHP    86 199  180  33  4   0  2   9  0  0  15 42 .183 .245 .239 .484  43   0  .226

Jorge Posada L/R Splits, Career
Split            G   PA    AB   H   2B 3B  HR RBI SB CS  BB  SO  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS  TB  IBB  BAbip
vs RHP as LH  1454 4484  3774 1013 228  5 179 685 16 13 629 909 .268 .378 .474 .852 1788 26   .307
vs LHP as RH   874 1827  1591  475 114  4  64 279  0  5 208 369 .299 .381 .496 .877  789 30   .351

Robinson Cano L/R Splits, Career
Split           G    PA    AB  H  2B  3B HR RBI SB CS BB  SO  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS  TB IBB BAbip
vs RHP as LH   667 2105  1995 617 144 13 64 273 11  9 84 212 .309 .338 .491 .829 979  14 .319
vs LHP as LH   446  931   860 258  55  4 23 121  1  5 45 123 .300 .341 .453 .794 390   0 .326

What think? Or really… what do you think Joe Girardi is going to think? Since ultimately he’s the one who makes out the lineup card, not me.