The Art of Constructing a Baseball Lineup

[BlyGilmore]

Quote: Originally Posted by 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.

There are certainly different schools of though on constructing a lineup. What I presented just happens to be one. As I mentioned its really an art form more than a science, and of course a huge factor in this is the players you have available to you.

The one flaw I see in the "second cleanup hitter" theory is a player who has the attributes you mentioned would be better served batting higher up simply because it means he'll see more at bats.

To me a big part of the bottom slots in the lineup is turning it over to get back to your top players. So I'd rather take that contact you have hitting 6th, put him 7th or 8th (assuming NL) and move that second cleanup guy to 6th - giving him a chance to mop up any RBIs your 4 and 5 guys have left, or to drive in the 4 and 5 guys if they hit doubles.

[BlyGilmore]

Quote: Originally Posted by Trevytrev11

Kind of funny...this year LaRussa is going to bat his pitchers 8th. In hopes that Pujols will have a few more RBI opportunities later in the games.

I know he's been threatening to do that for a while, and if i'm not mistaken he's done it a few times in spring training games before. It'll be interesting to see how that works out.

[ExtremeGamer]

Quote: Originally Posted by BlyGilmore

I know he's been threatening to do that for a while, and if i'm not mistaken he's done it a few times in spring training games before. It'll be interesting to see how that works out.

He's done it a bunch of times in regular season games as well.

[BlyGilmore]

Quote: Originally Posted by 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.

I could see that working on a team line the Twins a few years ago where their top HR guy only had like 25 or so. To me that's almost a lineup built around small ball.

At the same time though you always want your best players hitting higher up in the lineup. The difference between a 5 hitter and an 8 hitter of the course of a season is a couple hundred at bats.

(that also tends to be how softball teams create their lineup in leagues where more than 9 people bat because it helps create a more steady offense).

[dkgojackets]

Quote: Originally Posted by BlyGilmore

yadayada joe morgan

Close and late situations. 7th inning, one run game.

Manny is .275/.410/.488 (compared to .313/.409/.593 career)

All "clutch" is is analysis based on highlight shows and small sample size.

Alex Gonzalez hit a walkoff homerun for Florida in the World Series. Clutch? Lucky? Both? Neither? A player like Ortiz, who is the best hitter on the Red Sox and has an OPS+ around 160 since joining them, is obviously more likely than the rest of the team to get a hit/homerun to win the game since he's more likely to get a hit/homerun at any point in the game!

And to get back to the actual topic, batting order really doesn't matter as long as you dont put all your lefties in a row or something stupid like batting your best hitters last.

[BlyGilmore]

ummm yeah. i can see you are one of those people who loves to make points but not read what anybody else has to say agree to disagree i guess - and besides it has nothing to do with the topic.

[Stu]

Here's my "Art of Constructing a Baseball Lineup"

1) Make sure your good hitters get more at bats than your bad hitters.

[RiversIsMyHero]

Most statisticians/sabermetricians say that line-up order doesnt really matter much at all.