Manuel's lineups varied and successful

IT HAS BEEN SAID there are three things every man thinks he can do better than any other man. Grill steaks. Make love. And manage a baseball team.

An important part of the latter is piecing together the batting order every day. To judge from the instant discussion each lineup generates once it's tweeted to the world - and just the fact that tweeting the details as soon as they're posted has become standard operating procedure - demonstrates what a visceral issue this is.

Only 30 people on earth actually make those decisions, though, and Charlie Manuel is one of them. The Phillies' manager is renowned for his interest in all things involving hitting, so he enjoys the process. During the offseason, he's been known to pass the time like some sort of mad baseball chemist by sitting around and scribbling various combinations, trying to optimum formula.

Let's start with this: In a perfect world he'd come up with exactly the right alignment, sit back and use it every game.

That's not practical, of course. Players get hurt. Players go into slumps or get hot. Players come and go in trades. Players perform differently against a righthanded pitcher compared to a lefthander. Sometimes if the team is in a funk, a manager will make changes just to shake things up.

Injuries, especially, help account for the fact that Manuel has used 105 different lineups this year - the most in his time with the Phillies - and that doesn't count pitchers. The most common lineup has been used only 10 times, and no other lineup has been used more than five times.

With all his regulars finally back, Manuel revealed Sunday against the Mets what is expected to be his playoff lineup when the Phillies open the National League Division Series tomorrow against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Phillies snapped an eight-game losing streak and won their next two games with that lineup, before Manuel decided to rest Shane Victorino in the regular-season finale.

"We have to maneuver a lot," he said recently, sitting in his office at Citizens Bank Park. "Injuries definitely take away from that. So you're more inclined to try things you might not even consider if everybody was healthy."

Example: A hot-button issue after the Phillies lost rightfielder Jayson Werth to free agency was who would bat behind cleanup hitter Ryan Howard, giving him some protection from opposing teams simply pitching around him at every opportunity.

Without an obvious answer, an early idea was to have Jimmy Rollins and Victorino hit first and second. The thought was that if two of the better runners on the roster got on, the other team wouldn't want to chance walking Howard.

When it became clear that the patellar tendinitis in Chase Utley's knee was going to cause him to miss a significant amount of time, though, Manuel settled on Rollins as his best option to bat third. Victorino, not ideal batting first because of his aggressive approach at the plate, ended up there almost by default. In the end, the manager used Rollins-Victorino at the top of the order just 48 times.

There's an art that goes into this. First, he'll look at the athletic trainer's report, which tells him which players are available. Then he'll study the matchups. He has laminated sheets that show how each hitter has performed against every pitcher, and vice versa.

If a hitter has had exceptional success, those numbers are printed in red so they stand out. Manuel said with a laugh that veteran lefthander Jamie Moyer messed up his system. "He used to deke me out," Manuel said. "I'd look and I'd see nothing but red. That means good hittin.' His whole sheet would be red. I'd say, 'Jeez, how we gonna win tonight?' I'd show him. 'Jamie, how you gonna win tonight?' And he'd say, 'Aw, I'll find a way.' "

It's not just the starting pitchers that come into play, either. How many lefthanders the other team has in its bullpen has to be considered. If it has only one, or even none, breaking up the lefthanded hitters isn't nearly as important.

It's more than just stats, though. The Phillies don't have the speed they used to. That has to be taken into account.

"[Rollins and Victorino] are not as fast because of leg injuries. Jimmy's had trouble the last 3 years with his legs. When you see him run to first base today, he definitely doesn't trust himself to run. I think it's left over from the fact he has pulled calves, he has turned his ankle, he has had a knee problem, things like that. Therefore he's more apt not to really bust going down the line. But he definitely doesn't steal bases like he used to and his speed isn't there like it was," Manuel said.

"Vic is still fast, but even he's slipped a little bit. He doesn't run like he used to."

And there's this: Raul Ibanez batted .267 against lefthanded pitching in 2010. This year, .212. That created the opportunity that John Mayberry Jr. was able to take advantage of.

And this: Placido Polanco might be the closest thing to a prototypical No. 2 hitter the Phillies have. But he's limited somewhat now by a sports hernia that will require postseason surgery. It now appears he'll hit seventh in the postseason.

And this: Middle-of-the-lineup guys with high on-base percentages like Pat Burrell (.367 in 2008) and Werth (.388 in 2010) are gone. That makes a difference.

So Manuel will tinker and he'll make adjustments and he'll move people around. That all has to be weighed against the fact that he believes most hitters are more comfortable when they're hitting in the same spot night after night.

"The guy knows when he comes to the ballpark he's going to be hitting second, third, first or whatever. He gets used to that and he gets into that routine," he said. "And whether you realize it or not, that counts for a lot. Especially when he's doing good. He feels good about himself and he knows where he's going to hit.

"Some people are superstitious. They feel comfortable. Like in Cleveland we moved Manny Ramirez into the 4-hole and he didn't want to go there. Because he felt very comfortable in the 6- hole. Seriously. He came in and told us. It might have been putting too much on him but at the same time he felt that way."

It doesn't seem like that should matter. After all, when he gets to the plate the hitter should only be focusing on facing the pitcher regardless of where he's listed in the order.

"It's hard to explain that," Manuel conceded. "But hitting is feeling good about yourself and being relaxed and being focused. It's confidence. And anything that breeds confidence makes you feel better. If you're hitting real high, .300 or something, and I move him and he doesn't hit, boy, he'll look for reasons.

"When you feel different, you think more. Like Branch Rickey once said, empty head means a full bat. Which means the less you have to worry or think about something, there's more chance for your ability to come out. I totally believe that."

So much thought goes into creating a lineup, so many subtleties must be considered. Except when Manuel simply goes with his gut. And, yeah, that happens sometimes, too.

"Hunches come into play," he admitted, then launched into a story about how he strongly considered sitting Burrell in a game at Houston in September 2006. Burrell was in a deep slump at the time and, besides, Roger Clemens was starting for the Astros.

"Clemens used to give him fits," Manuel recalled. "I looked at his numbers and he was something like 1-for-16 with 10 strikeouts against him. I'm thinking, 'I don't know about this,' but I left him in there."

Naturally, Burrell hit a grand slam off The Rocket in the first inning, accounting for all the Phillies' runs in what turned out to be a 4-3 win.