Quote:
Originally Posted by rowech
Batting struggling players second is pretty common. Leadoff guy gets on and if he's a threat to steal, second batter will see fastballs. In addition, pitchers won't want to face number three and four hitters with guy(s) on so he will be willing to pitch more directly to the number two guy. Goes back a long way actually.
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We're now, basically, at half a season.
At some point, a player isn't "struggling" ... he just sucks.
Here's the scary thing about Bad Joke though, this year is actually
better than last year was.
2013: BA .184 / OBP .268 / SLG .289 / OPS .557 / 38.7% K/AB
2014: BA .208 / OBP .279 / SLG .340 / OPS .619 / 33.6% K/AB
Still, I don't think batting him second could be described as having gotten him past "struggling"