Batting The Pitcher 8th

[kyleb]

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I thought The Book recommended your best two hitters in the 2nd and 4th spots while the pitcher is "optimal" in the 8th spot, though it doesn't really have a great effect.

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Yeah, the "best" (OBP weighted) hitter hits 2nd. Your cleanup hitter is a high-slugging guy who doesn't necessarily walk much.

Then there's the effect of hitting a lefty second in the lineup for hit and run plays and stealing and blah blah blah boring minutia that is only exciting to coaches. I think it's interesting and I employ it when I coach Little League (and will at the HS level) but otherwise it's not relevant.

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I think most of this forum finds it pretty interesting

never thought about the left batting second thing before

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Constructing a lineup of righty/lefty/righty/lefty scenarios is ideal for managers because it allows you to minimize platoon splits vs. pitchers and to maximize "smallball" plays like stealing and hit and run plays. With a man on second and a left-handed hitter in the box, singles to right field turn into 1st/3rd situations more often than singles to left, and more effective hit and run plays can be employed. Right-handed catchers (virtually all of them) have tougher times throwing out runners with a left-handed hitter in their way and as such have to adjust to this.

The other in-game management stuff are basically automatic things that most people know just by watching the games - employing a shift vs. pull-heavy power hitters, picking the right times to intentionally walk or sacrifice, stealing signs and concealing them with a runner on second, using defensive calls from the catcher to call for slide steps on high-probability steal attempts but not wanting to waste a ball on a pitchout, putting a late swing on a ball intentionally to distract a catcher attempting to throw out a runner, etc. Well, some of that stuff is intuitive; I guess a lot of it requires serious analysis of in-game processes that a lot of posters might not do when they watch the games since they aren't actually participating. It's all stuff you learn pretty fast when you play at the high school or higher level, though.