Quote:
Originally Posted by Yarideki
Pardon me but wouldn't you want your best players hitting second or third by the numbers given in your post's left-hand column considering that those spots have more opportunities in innnings that aren't the first inning? Especially since the second and third spots in the batting order are more likely to appear in games than the fourth slot, IIRC, which should mean minimal rbi loss for more plate appearances.
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If I moved my 4th and 5th guys higher up to slots 2 and 3 in the lineup, then their lower OBP would result in a significantly lower expected-runners-value for batters 3 and 4. And then wherever I put the former 2 and 3 hitters who have good OBP, they'll raise the expected-runners-value for whoever follows them in the lineup, so if they are batting 4th and 5th, the "best" place for my sluggers will look to be the 6th and 7th positions.
I do have a bit of an overpowered lineup though, with all those top 5 players being superstars with high slugging, but mainly different levels of OBP. That's Mike Trout in the #2 position, and Manny Machado at #3. My best slugger, Bryce Harper, is actually batting #1 because of his super OBP, but I usually have Joey Votto batting 1st but he is injured.
With a more normal team where the players have weaknesses and are only good at one thing (slugging or OBP), the ideal lineup would look more traditional.