When San Diego Padres manager Bob Melvin builds his daily lineup -- on a 3x5 card or a sheet of paper -- he draws a baseball field. Melvin free-hands the diamond of the infield and adds the necessary accoutrements around it, including the foul territory. Within that illustration, he writes the names he's considering at each position. Next to the field, he'll list the San Diego batting order, then hand the treatise to his assistants for some feedback.
Once the lineup is agreed upon, associate manager Ryan Christenson works his magic. His grandmother -- his Nana -- gave him a set of fountain pens when he was a boy, a gift that led to a years-long calligraphy practice. Christenson's regular cursive is actually not that good, he admits, but with his special pens, patience and the inspiration of his Nana, Christenson likes the idea of creating something special for the Padres' lineup card. Across the baseball landscape these days, most lineup cards are computer-generated -- Christenson's are different, his calligraphy skill adding an artist's flourish.
On April 20, Christenson will pen a familiar name to the lineup card for the first time this season -- that of Fernando Tatis Jr., the dynamic young talent who is on the verge of completing his 80-game suspension for performance-enhancing drugs. For the first time, Melvin will have to decide how to arrange the four transcendent hitters at the top of his batting order: Manny Machado, who has four finishes in the top five of MVP voting; Xander Bogaerts, a career .293 hitter; Juan Soto, whose early-career trajectory is often compared to that of Ted Williams because of his power and patience; and Tatis, who led the National League with 42 homers in 2021.
Melvin has discussed the alignment of his top four hitters with each of the players, absorbing and weighing their preferences as he considers his options.