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To: driftless2
I'd much rather have Yost at the top of the line-up than Dark.

I'm surprised the Yankees in the early 1960s scored as many runs as they did with low-walk low-OBP hitters Bobby Richardson and Tony Kubek at the top of the line-up.

16 posted on 11/13/2014 4:08:16 PM PST by MUDDOG
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To: MUDDOG
Well, when you've got guys like Mantle and Maris hitting behind them, you can still score a lot of runs.

I don't know if any teams still use the old paradigm of if the first guy got on base, the second guy would bunt him into scoring position. Bill James pretty destroyed that paradigm that teams had used for about one hundred years. But it used to be automatic that if the first guy up got on first, the second guy would "sacrifice" him to second to get him, first guy, into scoring position. According to James teams would score more runs by having a good hitter batting second and trying for a base hit. Outs are very valuable according to James, and a team should never deliberately give up an out.

I grew up as a Milwaukee Braves fan, and I used to wonder after reading James how the Braves would have done with Billy Bruton leading off, Hank Aaron batting second, and Eddie Mathews batting third. Both Bruton and Aaron were both good base stealers. If Bruton got on base, and Aaron singled him to second, the Braves could have pulled many double steals. That would mean the other team would probably walk Mathews to load the bases and play for a double play. But the Braves had a lot of other good hitters like Joe Adcock, Wes Covington, and others.

James maintains that the best hitter on each team should bat first, the second best hitter second, and so on. I don't know if any teams do that.

21 posted on 11/13/2014 4:45:42 PM PST by driftless2 (For long term happiness, learn how to play the accordion.)
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