The Art of Constructing a Baseball Lineup

[RaychelSnr]

Dave Branda, Operation Sports' Editorals Editor gives his opinion on how to construct the best possible baseball lineup. Check out the article here.

"Putting together a lineup in baseball is really much more of an art than a science, with many baseball insiders having very different ideas about how to construct the perfect lineup."

[maverick3176]

Re: Art of Baseball Lineup Making

just read that link. The dude was right on the money and knows his stuff

[jrod1981]

I'm gonna have to print this out! Makes me realize what the cubs are doing wrong. They are trying to make guys fit where they really aren't designed for.

[jake44np]

Re: The Art of Constructing a Baseball Lineup

Decent article filled with some common knowledge if you a baseball fan.

[Trevytrev11]

Re: The Art of Constructing a Baseball Lineup

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.

[Steelerfan2k1]

Great article! You know - much of this actually applies to slowpitch softball as well (only you have 10 hitters instead of 9).

[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.

[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...

[Jistic]

Re: The Art of Constructing a Baseball Lineup

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]

Re: The Art of Constructing a Baseball Lineup

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]

Re: The Art of Constructing a Baseball Lineup

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.