Does line-up placement affect individual performances?
 

Like would a batter hit the same at 8th as they would 1st in the lineup or are there factors that would affect their performance? Obviously the volume stats won't be as high because their not accumulating as many plate appearances, but can I expect reasonably similar results?

I would expect the basic stat rates to remain the same.

If the developers have taken all into account, a player hits better when they have protection around them.

There could be some morale issues that also could affect performance a bit.
Say a player expects to be a middle of the order hitter and you slot him into the 8 hole. This could affect his morale. Obviously there are many other factors involved in morale so this might not have any affect if all else is good. But depending upon what the other morale factors look like at that point in time (and perhaps depending upon the players adaptability rating?), it could lead to some decrease in production.

Could also lead to some increase in production.

A better hitter could be behind him, while a speedster in front of him, cause said player to get more fastballs.

Lineups are cyclical and generally, if there aren't deadspots consecutively and if there are enough RBI opportunities for all hitters - and the team is winning - you won't see an increase.

I'm not sure how definitive that claim is. It very much depends on the pitcher and game state ie late innings. I was surprised to see mostly older articles come back from a google search.

Here is one that says yes and no.:rolleyes:

https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/20...reality-exists

Yes, perhaps.
One of the reasons I try to never give definitive answers here is that there are nearly always a great many factors that go into any one aspect of baseball- in real life certainly, but also in OOTP, it would seem.
As RchW indicates above, there is quite a bit of disagreement in the baseball statistical analysis world (for lack of a better term coming to mind this morning) about the actual effects of lineup protection.
Is this something built into the game engine? I honestly don't know, but if you have seen evidence from the developers that it is then I defer to your knowledge.

We do know that morale is a factor in the game. Do I think it is significant enough to drive lineup decisions? Almost always no. But, if a host of other factors are aligned a certain way, as I said above, it does have the potential for some small effect.