Braun, Ramirez crucial

disappeared completely?

“No chance,” said Roenicke.

“You can’t survive without your 3-4 (hitters). And we’re not putting all the offense on them. All we’re asking is that everybody just does what they (normally) do. We’re not asking everybody to have fantastic years.”

Assuming Braun and Ramirez remain healthy, Roenicke confirmed he plans to bat them third and fourth again. He could choose to split them with left-handed hitting Adam Lind at times, but Ramirez, despite the fact he will be 37 in June and is coming off two injury-plagued, lessproductive seasons (115 RBI total), gets first shot at cleanup.

“I think he can still be a 100-RBI guy,” said Roenicke. “If the guys in front of him do their job and get on base, which we’re trying to get them to do, I think he can. If Braunie has the year that we think he should be having, I do.

“(Ramirez) may not be playing 162 games but I think he’s going to have the opportunity (to drive in runs). If they’re all doing their jobs and getting on base for him, I

Braun expect him to have a really good year.”

If Roenicke does bat Braun and Ramirez 3-4, it sets up an interesting situation with Carlos Gomez, who would almost have to bat leadoff. He doesn’t profile as a No. 2 hitter — Jonathan Lucroy best fits that role — and therefore would have to bat fifth to have any chance of maximizing his offensive talents.

Where that would leave Lind is anyone’s guess. If he’s swinging the bat well, it would seem to make more sense to bat him fourth between Braun and Ramirez, setting up a right-left-right scenario for opponents to face. If you go Gomez-LucroyBraun-Lind-Ramirez at the top of the lineup, you’d likely have promising young slugger Khris Davis sixth.

That would leave Scooter Gennett and Jean Segura, two free swingers, to bat ahead of the pitcher. So, it will be interesting to see if Roenicke is able to stick with Braun and Ramirez as his 3-4 hitters, even if they are productive. That would be a good problem to have, considering how last September went.

“That’s why I talk about health being so important for this team,” said Roenicke. “Because if we have a healthy Braun and a healthy Aramis, now everybody else just has to play their game and it’s a really good offense. A really deep offense.

“Depending on where I put Carlos — if I hit him fifth or something — it’s deep. If you don’t have those guys productive at 3-4, everybody else is trying to add on to what they normally should be doing.

“And it never seems to work out well that way.” Send email to thaudricourt@journalsentinel.com.