There has been much talk throughout the Cubs blogosphere about this lineup configuration:

Soriano
Murton
Lee
Ramirez
Barrett
Jones
DeRosa
Izturis
Pitcher

This is the lineup we saw in the spring opener, and the consensus seems to be that this is perfection.

But I must ask: Does that claim have any merit? And what should be expected of that lineup?

So, using Baseball Musings' Lineup Analysis and the averaged projections from Another Cubs Blog, I crunched the numbers...

... and the above lineup is, indeed, as near to perfection as the Cubs will likely get: It yielded 5.119 runs per game, while the optimized lineup with those batters (Murton, Lee, Barrett, Ramirez, Soriano, pitcher, DeRosa, Jones, Izturis) only barely beat it with 5.223 runs per game.

5.119 R/G equates to about 829 runs over 162 games. Last year's squad only scored 716 runs, and the league-leading Philadelphia Phillies scored 865.

Soriano will be leading off – that much is certain – so the opener's lineup is the most productive configuration we will see. If Lou Piniella's only significant contribution is this lineup configuration, his hiring may very well be worthwhile.