Can Braun hit Cleanup?

[Team Canada]

Well played!

[FVBrewerFan]

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The third slot does have a lot of two out/ no runner situations, while the fifth slot has higher leverage at bats, so you should probably put a better hitter in the fifth slot than the third.

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I don't believe the third slot has A LOT more 2 out/no runner situations than the 5th spot. But even if that was true, wouldn't you want Braun 3rd instead of 5th? Braun is more likely to get on base with those 2 outs with the team's biggest run producer up next to drive him in.

 

After all, isn't that a big part of line-up strategy? Get as many people on base throughout the game with your clean-up hitter up?

[Phenomenal Smith]

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I don't believe the third slot has A LOT more 2 out/no runner situations than the 5th spot. But even if that was true, wouldn't you want Braun 3rd instead of 5th? Braun is more likely to get on base with those 2 outs with the team's biggest run producer up next to drive him in.

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Based on data from 1999-2002, a number 3 hitter will hit with 2 outs 37% of time while a number 5 hitter will do that 33% of the time. A number 3 hitter will hit with runners on base 48% of the time, as will a number 5 hitter, but the number 5 hitter will have 3.1 runners on per game vs, 3.00 for number 4 hitters. (Source - Tango, Lichtman, and Dolphin, The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball, p.122)

 

At any rate, the order is not hugely important, though it can make a small difference.

[JJHardy7]

I really don't think moving Braun to clean up would really create that much more offense...he pretty much has been our offense since the break. One very big concern I have is that it seems when a guy like Hardy or Hart get hot our offense is tough to stop...when they're both cold we look end of the back on offense and just hope for HRs...anyone else have this feeling? Is this just a growing phase for young guys or do we need to get a veteran who can be solid down the stretch and maybe rest some of these young guys?

[1992casey]

Great job with the information, PS. Had someone not shown up with it, I'd have tried to bumble through it. This is so much better.

 

That said, and with the information in hand, I think that I'd still prioritize splitting up lefty hitters. That would go along with the leverage thing mentioned previously. If an opposing manager is able to bring in a LOOGY to face two batters, it's probably going to happen at the worst possible time.

 

 

EDIT: PS, you may not be aware if it, but Tango posted here a couple times last winter.

 

EDIT 2: removed reference to page number of previous post as they're kind of irrelevant with Yuku http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[HebrewHammer]

Batting order doesn't matter much in the end in terms of scoring runs. Obviously batting backwards is going to hurt you but swapping out Fielder and Braun at 3 and 4 shouldn't matter much. It's stupid IMO because it was working the other way around. Why mess with things that are working?

[Team Canada]

Well, one of the factors is that Yost wanted to move Jenkins up to 5, and to do that you have to move Prince to 3.

[Postseason2006]

Again, why screw with a good thing. Hitting Braun 4th was foolish but Ned's inability to coach showed that. Just like when he moved Hardy back to 2nd.