Quote:
Originally Posted by mattshwink
The one thing you have to remember is that batting order does not matter as much as most people think it does. The traditional order does fairly well, but there are others that do better.
There are quite a few baseball statistics gurus who have run large simulations in an attempt to quantify the effect. The results:
1. Batting order does not matter as much as most people think. Depending on who you ask the absolute best vs. absolute worst order is worth 2-4 wins a year. Can that make a difference, yes. But batting your catcher (on most teams) first won't necessarily kill you (all simulations remove the pitcher, so usually juggling 8 players).
2. There are other systems, such as ranking by OBP or OPS, that usually does as well or better then the traditional lineup (but not by much). Most "traditionalists" would balk at hitting someone like A-Rod, Pujols, Jones or Bradley first. But this can actually have slightly better results.
3. There is no statistical evidence that protecting a hitter has any real affect (it is actually quite random).
With these in mind there is nothing wrong with a traditional order. But keep in mind that players that are fairly similar won't probably change things much (if at all).
References:
Batting Order:
Optimal Baseball Batting Order Construction: a case study using the 2000 Toronto Blue Jays
Batting Order Study
Are the Mets Out of Order? It Doesn't Matter - New York Times
Situational Hitting:
BTF's Baseball Scholars
Protection:
Protection Study - The Baseball Archive
And just for fun: Does size matter? 
Does Size Matter (Part 4) -- The Hardball Times
Enjoy! 
Matt |
I like this way of thinking about it.
In setting my lineups, I've taken to putting my highest isolated power guy in the cleanup slot and then the guy with the highest (or second highest) RC/27 in the 3rd slot. It looks to me that Colomoneres has slightly higher ISO Power, although neither one of them is particularly exciting in that department.