Ranking the Lineup Positions

by David S. Cohen on Nov 16, 2005 5:37 PM EST in News Comment 7 comments

Sometimes it's useful or, dare I say, fun to just have some numbers and look at them.

In that vein, I'm posting a list of all team lineup positions (not fielding positions) ranked by OPS. Ties are sorted by OBP, reflecting the greater importance that on-base-percentage has on scoring runs.

Basically, what this shows is how each team's lineup slot did in 2005 in relation to all the other slots in baseball. The Phillies, who have 5 of the top 85 slots, are highlighted in bold. It's quite easy to see where this team's batting weaknesses lay.

Enjoy!

100-199 and 200-270 are listed in separate stories.

Rank	Team	Position	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
1	St. Louis	3	0.326	0.424	0.602	1.026
2	Florida	4	0.335	0.413	0.598	1.011
3	Colorado	3	0.328	0.442	0.545	0.987
4	Chicago Cubs	3	0.308	0.381	0.597	0.978
5	Boston	3	0.290	0.395	0.581	0.976
6	NY Yankees	5	0.316	0.399	0.575	0.974
7	Boston	4	0.294	0.377	0.580	0.956
8	Texas	3	0.302	0.380	0.561	0.940
9	Milwaukee	5	0.305	0.377	0.560	0.937
10	Houston	4	0.284	0.391	0.531	0.922
11	Chicago Sox	4	0.289	0.376	0.536	0.912
12	Texas	2	0.326	0.385	0.520	0.906
13	Cleveland	4	0.280	0.363	0.543	0.906
14	Philadelphia	3	0.287	0.394	0.506	0.900
15	Arizona	4	0.261	0.354	0.539	0.894
16	Philadelphia	5	0.276	0.381	0.511	0.892
17	Seattle	4	0.256	0.361	0.528	0.889
18	Pittsburgh	3	0.284	0.375	0.511	0.886
19	Atlanta	3	0.285	0.383	0.501	0.884
20	Philadelphia	6	0.303	0.376	0.508	0.884
21	NY Yankees	3	0.279	0.381	0.501	0.882
22	Cincinnati	5	0.272	0.365	0.512	0.877
23	Chicago Cubs	4	0.286	0.357	0.519	0.876
24	St. Louis	4	0.274	0.376	0.494	0.870
25	NY Yankees	4	0.290	0.370	0.491	0.861
26	NY Yankees	6	0.249	0.370	0.491	0.861
27	Cincinnati	6	0.272	0.350	0.510	0.860
28	Cincinnati	3	0.310	0.375	0.484	0.859
29	Chicago Cubs	5	0.302	0.353	0.506	0.859
30	Atlanta	4	0.258	0.338	0.519	0.858
31	Florida	3	0.287	0.361	0.496	0.857
32	Baltimore	3	0.295	0.343	0.513	0.855
33	Washington	4	0.291	0.363	0.491	0.854
34	San Francisco	4	0.295	0.373	0.479	0.852
35	Houston	3	0.277	0.369	0.477	0.847
36	Baltimore	1	0.301	0.371	0.473	0.844
37	LA Dodgers	3	0.266	0.368	0.476	0.844
38	NY Mets	7	0.267	0.346	0.496	0.843
39	LA Angels	4	0.300	0.352	0.488	0.840
40	Arizona	6	0.278	0.347	0.492	0.839
41	Arizona	3	0.280	0.368	0.467	0.835
42	Colorado	6	0.289	0.355	0.480	0.835
43	NY Mets	5	0.283	0.347	0.488	0.835
44	Oakland	4	0.284	0.343	0.492	0.835
45	NY Mets	4	0.268	0.357	0.477	0.834
46	Pittsburgh	6	0.289	0.345	0.488	0.834
47	Detroit	5	0.287	0.334	0.500	0.834
48	Cleveland	3	0.280	0.360	0.472	0.833
49	Chicago Sox	6	0.271	0.335	0.498	0.832
50	Cincinnati	4	0.258	0.351	0.480	0.831
51	Cincinnati	2	0.284	0.360	0.471	0.830
52	Texas	5	0.265	0.321	0.508	0.829
53	Cleveland	9	0.282	0.338	0.483	0.821
54	Kansas City	3	0.291	0.344	0.476	0.820
55	San Francisco	1	0.297	0.351	0.467	0.818
56	Tampa Bay	3	0.285	0.321	0.497	0.818
57	NY Yankees	1	0.302	0.379	0.438	0.817
58	Pittsburgh	1	0.295	0.368	0.449	0.817
59	LA Angels	3	0.292	0.349	0.469	0.817
60	Cleveland	6	0.281	0.349	0.468	0.817
61	Arizona	5	0.279	0.343	0.474	0.817
62	Detroit	3	0.294	0.337	0.480	0.817
63	San Francisco	5	0.304	0.361	0.452	0.813
64	San Diego	4	0.279	0.366	0.445	0.811
65	Chicago Cubs	6	0.292	0.341	0.470	0.811
66	St. Louis	5	0.266	0.336	0.474	0.810
67	Milwaukee	7	0.259	0.364	0.445	0.809
68	Philadelphia	4	0.258	0.378	0.428	0.806
69	Boston	1	0.312	0.363	0.441	0.804
70	Boston	5	0.276	0.363	0.440	0.803
71	Atlanta	2	0.286	0.354	0.450	0.803
72	Milwaukee	4	0.262	0.321	0.481	0.802
73	Texas	8	0.268	0.328	0.474	0.801
74	Cincinnati	7	0.270	0.335	0.465	0.800
75	LA Dodgers	4	0.268	0.338	0.461	0.799
76	St. Louis	7	0.308	0.362	0.436	0.798
77	Pittsburgh	4	0.280	0.361	0.437	0.798
78	Milwaukee	6	0.286	0.352	0.445	0.797
79	Detroit	4	0.292	0.348	0.449	0.797
80	Colorado	4	0.264	0.337	0.460	0.797
81	Atlanta	1	0.295	0.356	0.439	0.795
82	Washington	3	0.269	0.355	0.439	0.794
83	Baltimore	4	0.278	0.333	0.458	0.791
84	Atlanta	5	0.258	0.330	0.458	0.789
85	Philadelphia	2	0.315	0.379	0.408	0.787
86	Milwaukee	1	0.298	0.364	0.423	0.787
87	Minnesota	5	0.262	0.336	0.450	0.787
88	Seattle	1	0.303	0.349	0.436	0.785
89	Texas	1	0.243	0.321	0.464	0.785
90	Baltimore	5	0.264	0.337	0.447	0.784
91	Atlanta	8	0.287	0.348	0.435	0.783
92	Boston	8	0.286	0.359	0.422	0.782
93	Boston	6	0.268	0.342	0.440	0.782
94	Houston	6	0.273	0.333	0.448	0.781
95	Chicago Sox	5	0.274	0.329	0.451	0.781
96	Washington	6	0.283	0.340	0.439	0.780
97	NY Mets	6	0.258	0.330	0.450	0.779
98	Houston	2	0.267	0.324	0.454	0.778
99	Kansas City	4	0.276	0.353	0.424	0.777

0 recs | Comment 7 comments

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Comments

Reds menace

The Cincinnati Reds hold six of the top 74 positions on this list. That's pretty damn good.

I knew there had to be some reason I (incorrectly) pick them to make the playoffs every year...

by dajafi on Nov 17, 2005 11:30 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

The Reds

Well, they did score the most runs in the NL this year (820 to the Phils' second place 807), so this isn't a surprise. Of course, winning is a different matter since that also requires some modicum of decent pitching and defense....

by David S. Cohen on Nov 17, 2005 11:53 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Discussion

I pasted and re-sorted by position in order to make some sense out of it. Let's see what shook out.

In all of MLB, the Phils had:
10th best production out of the leadoff spot
4th best 2-hole hitting
6th best 3-hole hitting
19th best cleanup hitting
3rd best 5-hole hitting
1st best 6-hole hitting
24th best 7-hole hitting
7th best 8-hole hitting
29th best 9-hole hitting

That incredible hit streak not only took Jimmy Rollins from being one of the certain dogs of this year to being its clear highlight, it also put our leadoff production in the top third.

7th best out of the #8 spot? Can't say I expected that, but looking at the data it looks like it's more because Bell should have been batting 8th than anything else.

Second to worst in the pitcher's spot? Whatcha think, just the inevitable consequence of having Padilla and Lieber on the same team or fuel for folks who want to question the manager's use of the bench?

OPS gap between our 4 and 5 hitters? .086. SLG gap? .083. Team with a similar pattern? NYY.

Amusing numbers, but like you said, probably more fun than useful. It mostly seems to indicate a mildly unorthodox lineup. Exchange the 4 & 5 hitters and the 7 & 8 hitters and you eliminate the outliers.

by djhaigh on Nov 17, 2005 2:01 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

What your info tells us

Is that the Phils had a horrible bench. Their pitcher's hitting are obviously a problem in the 9 hole, but they were actually 12th in the NL in OPS. So, it was the bench that brought them down to second-to-last overall in the 9-hole. It was horrible.

Your info also tells us that Mike Lieberthal, who mostly hit in the 8-hole, was relatively pretty good. And, most importantly, that David Bell, who hit in the 7-hole most of the year, was absolutely atrocious. Wise management would have recognized that and done something about it, like a platoon, which was so obvious to everyone but Ed Wade and Charline Manuel.

Oh, and by the way, you didn't need my info to do the sorting within individual batting positions; ESPN's stat page will do that for you.

by David S. Cohen on Nov 17, 2005 2:15 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

And about Jimmy

On August 22, his OPS was .682. Thus, his 4.5 months at the leadoff spot were actually 24th among leadoff hitters, and would have put him 211 on this chart. His last 6 weeks saved him, but for most of the year he was quite atrocious.

by David S. Cohen on Nov 17, 2005 2:47 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Bench

Know an easy way to get pinch-hit numbers for each team in MLB?

by djhaigh on Nov 18, 2005 8:02 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

This site

This site does it for you. Problem is, you can't then sort by pinch hitters by batting order, but there's no other explanation for the team ranking in 9-hole hitting (given it's NL 12 position ranking for pitcher hitting) than that the team's pinch hitting in the 9-hole, as well as DHs in the 9-hole, were just horrendous compared to the rest of the league.

Our pinch hitters, probably helped by subbing Lofton for Michaels (or vice versa) later in games when pitching changes occurred, were 17th in OPS in the majors.

by David S. Cohen on Nov 18, 2005 8:05 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs