The Art of Constructing a Baseball Lineup

[Jistic]

Quote: Originally Posted by dkgojackets

Everything I've read says that batting order actually matters very little...if you assume the pitcher bats 9th than the difference between the optimal lineup and worst lineup possible is just 6%, and that required some really ridiculous stuff in the worst order. It's much more important what players the manager chooses to have bat, not the order they hit in, although ideas like alternating lefties/righties and keeping the real slow players with double play potential separate have merit.

You are dead on. They've done countless studies on this, lineup means very little.

[ChaseB]

Quote: Originally Posted by jdros13

I applaud the effort of writing articles, but you guys need to do a much better job editing if you are going to do this. In the third paragraph it is "here" not "hear" and in the 5th paragraph it is "two", not "to". I haven't read the rest of the article yet. Many won't care, but it really looks bad to be "published" with these blatant errors. If it was a forum post I wouldn't even comment. Just my $.02....again I applaud the effort. I'll finish the article now...

Yea that was our bad. Writers submit articles the day before, but this one slipped through the editing process and wasn't checked I guess. Inexcusable, but now fixed.

[snepp]

Well, since the grammar/typo can has already been opened....

In the 3rd paragraph under "1st" it has OPB rather than OBP. And then under "3rd" it has OBS (assuming it should be OBP again).

[KRS-One]

I'd disagree slightly with the 6 and 7 spots in an AL lineup. It's common knowledge (at least, as far as I know, it's common knowledge...if that makes sense) that the 7th hitter is the "second cleanup hitter." Your 6th hitter should be a guy who makes good contact, can move guys around the bases, etc. (much like your #2 hitter) and then your #7 guy should have decent power to the gaps so that he can drive in any guys still on base from the meat of the lineup.

[ChaseB]

So you'd say NL and AL lineups start to differ at #6 rather than #7 KRS?

[Cletus]

I think you're forgetting there's more than one way to do a lineup. There's the Speed, Control, Contact way. It isn't used in MLB at all because of the abundance of power hitters. basically you have your line up split into 3 sections. The first hitter is your speed guy, second guy can move runners along and 3rd guy is the contact guy. It is a very useful lineup if you do not have sluggers on your team. Sometimes in lineups, I like to arrange my 3rd hitter as my power hitter and my 4th guy as my contact guy, it just depends on who is getting on base and if I need my 4th hitter to get on base or not.

[SHO]

Good stuff.

[Cletus]

Quote: Originally Posted by snepp

Well, since the grammar/typo can has already been opened.... In the 3rd paragraph under "1st" it has OPB rather than OBP. And then under "3rd" it has OBS (assuming it should be OBP again).

I'm almost sure that OBS is On Base + Slugging %