The Batting Order
After Wednesdays dismal performance, we need to add a bit of structure and strategy to the batting order so we dont leave 20 runners on base every week. Lead off should be someone fairly quick who takes a lot of pitches with a good OBA. (Looking at the stats, Adam has an OBA of almost .500, 4 SB, 9 hits and 5 walks and seem the ideal candidate). Your number 2 should be good at pushing runners around, a good contact hitter with a decent OBA too, a good bunter and who rarely flys out. Needs to be fairly speedy also in case the lead off gets out. Your number 3 should be your most consistant hitter - normally the guy with the best average who can drive in runs and start a two out rally with an extra base hit. (Mike is the ideal number 3) Number 4 should be your best extra base hitter - somebody who can clear the bags with a deep double or hard triple down the line - home run even! (Justin?) Number 5 should be mr.reliable (ok were fucked now) - your two out clutch guy who will line one up the middle. 6+7 your next best long ball guys and hope they luck out with runners in scoring position. 8+9+10 the next three best hitters in order. The least consistent guys with the most strike outs and the worst averages should bat last - no point giving your weaker batters more at bats giving them more chance to strike out... anybody disagree with this strategy? any other ideas.... for me - 1.Adam 3.Mike D 4.Justin; and all other positions in the batting order are a lottery because the rest of us are lucky to be batting .200

asd
I think we should take a bit of a different approach to the lineup than traditional baseball says. Since a good basestealer in this league is pretty much guranteed to get to 2nd if he gets on base, I think we should play to that as much as we can. Ideally, going through the innings, the people who get on base first should be stealing every single time. If you get on base, and you're in what I would call a designated steal spot in the order, you should be in scoring position before the hit comes, always. With that in mind, here's what I would suggest we look for in the lineup (not too much different than what Nigel has suggested) 1 ) OBP, SB 2 ) OBP, SB (in case 1 doesn't get on) 3 ) low K, High BB (someone who will either put the ball in play or take a walk to keep the inning going) 4 ) SLG & OBP (if he gets up in the 1st, he needs to knock whoever's on base in), SB (If we go down 1,2,3 in the 1st this guy becomes the next leadoff hitter, and is expected to be in scoring position) 5 ) low K, low BB (If we make it to 5 in the 1st, we need someone that's going to put the ball in play somehow, a walk doesn't do too much good because now we're just getting lower down the lineup with more chance of stranding the runners) 6 ) OBP 7 ) OBP, SB (same rationale for the number 4 being a good SB guy) 8 ) OBP 9 ) OBP 10) OBP, SB (see above)

Your number 2 should be good at pushing runners around, a good contact hitter with a decent OBA too, a good bunter and who rarely flys out. Needs to be fairly speedy also in case the lead off gets out. Hmmm... you mean like a guy who has a .437 OBP, 10:3 BB/K ratio in 22 ABs, who bunts often? Now who could that be... you might as well say he should be Australian :cheers:. Adam's suggestions are pretty vague (um, high OBP for everyone? Yeah, ideally...) but I do like the #5 suggestion... maybe Mike N is the ideal #5 hitter if he's up for it? But he doesn't like being moved from his usual #6 spot, but #6 is just one down from 5 anyway.... so maybe a #5 hitter who walks is fine if the #6 guy is the one who has the low K, low BB. In fact, that makes perfect sense. I think the #5 guy should be high OBP (whether by hits or walks) and low k, and #6 should be low k, low walk which is what Mike N is (or tries to be; pitchers seem to not be giving him much choice this year as evidenced by his 8 walks) and where he is in the batting order already. Adam #1, Nigel #2, Mike D #3, Justin #4, and Mike N #6 seems like it would be a great solution for 5 of the first 6 spots in the order. For #5 we'd have to experiment a bit, but I feel like Andres would be a good fit there (I don't think he's hit there yet). He ranks in the top 3 on the team in BA, OBP, and slugging, and has thus far a k-rate that falls at about the team average. Game 1 against the Blue Sox yesterday marred his k rate and his LOB% pretty badly, but he recovered nicely in game 2. (apologies to Andres for talking as if you're not here, but these are all compliments, you know). As good as I'm feeling about 1-6 lineup, and I do think it'll improve things a bit, our biggest problem is still leaving runners on and killing rallies, but even our good/middle tier hitters are doing that so I think really that we just have to flat out hit better in key situations. Easier said than done, but at this point a lineup change isn't going to have a huge impact if our middle/upper tier hitters are leaving men on base. If the 1/3/4(5/6) hitters are the only ones who actually fit the profile of their lineup spot, there's not really much to base the rest of the lineup on. Hence people batting 2nd or 5th one game and 8th the next. As a game goes on the #7/8/9 hitters coming up with the bases loaded becomes almost as likely as the #4/5/6 hitters coming up with the bases loaded, so really EVERYONE has to improve in the LOB department. I think people should try to relax with men on base (again easier said than done). With my LOB% I'm in no position to criticize (well, I think I can if I include myself in that, which I did with "everyone" though I don't actually think I'm criticizing anyone), but I do think I'm improving a bit since, paradoxically, though I left probably a career high number of runners on base yesterday, I believe the vast majority of them came on contact rather than strikeouts, which right now is probably the most you can ask of me (of course I still have a looooooong way to go). In fact, it's not so much the LOB numbers that are killing us really, but the LOB on strikeouts I think. With the bases loaded (or any runner on 3rd) and less than 2 outs, chances are any grounder that isn't right to someone is going to score a run (doubleplays, while devastating, aren't particularly common in this league, though I believe we've hit into a couple with the bases loaded so far this year; groundball seems just as likely to find a hole or be botched by the fielder as it does turning into a doubleplay, with one out at second being perhaps the most likely event), so even though you might get 2 LOB at least you accomplished something (weak popups like I hit with the bases loaded yesterday will not accomplish anything, but eventually some of those are going to find a hole to drop in, or a fielder to drop it, which is why any contact has potential). I think just having the team's k-rate NOT increase substantially with runners on base, which I think to this point it has, would help us out a lot. Maybe I'm totally wrong, but the strikeouts have definitely been a problem for a lot of people (me worst of all). Also, one other little suggestion is that in the event that we only have 9 or 10 players and have 2 of the weaker hitters in the lineup (one of whom is probably going to be me), we should split them up, have one bat 8th and the other bat 10th, despite the #9 hitter being better than the #8 hitter. That way we hopefully don't load the bases and then get 3 outs in a row without scoring. Of course I realize everybody considers me one of these aforementioned holes, but I'd just like to say that I'm feeling a lot more comfortable at the plate and that I do not believe yesterday's single was a fluke. Over the past few games, I've felt better the plate, and it's shown in my contact rate, which has sky rocketed (RELATIVE to what I had been doing, which was nothing- 10 strikeouts in a row basically all of May, which is hideously embarassing, but "only" 3 k's in my last 10 plate appearances/8 ABs). I'd just like to have the team's confidence in me be a little closer to the confidence I have in myself (i.e. I don't want the team thinking "Oh god Peter's up with the bases loaded and 2 outs, better take off my batting gloves and helmet and get my glove even though I'm on deck" which I assume was the case at least for the past month and a half), since raising the overall team confidence would probably help everyone a bit. If you can make contact, you'll probably reach base between at least 20% and 25% of the time, whether by well hit ball, fielding error, bloop, walk or whatever, and at that point, as far as I'm concerned, for the purposes of amateur baseball, you cease to be a #10 hole and become a #10 hitter. It is my goal to at the very least become that #10 hitter from now on. If I ever learn how to not shut my brain off on full counts (or perhaps how to ignore the count entirely other than "no swing 3-0"), I might be able to unleash my full potential and approach the mendoza line.

i'll bat 5th I want someone or two people behind be making contact. I like batting 6th but 7,8, and 9 can't have combined strikeouts counted in dozens like in the first game. I got sunburnt this weekend standing on the bases making small talk with their infield. Peter, if you ever do strikeout again do not take your helmet off and get all mad...the other teams find it much too funny and I have a hard time not laughing with them. I feel guilty. Other than that, I think everyone on the team acknowledges your improvement in making contact. I still don't understand why Nigel bunts, the guy who hit a grand slam last year is bunting. Small ball is for teams that know what their doing or hitters who don't know what they are doing, not australians that actually have proven to show they have ability.

Man I write a lot of pointless stuff sometimes

Ok, here's who we have coming tomorrow, so let's play "Create-a-lineup" 1. Adam 2. Andres 3. John 4. Justin 5. Mike D 6. Mike N 7. Nigel 8. Pete 9. Simon 10. Steve We could go with the alphabetical order, but let's see something more creative.

a
1) Adam 2) Justin 3) Nigel 4) Mike D 5) Mike N or Andres 6) Mike N or Andres 7) Steve 8 ) Peter 9) John 10) Simon Unless Mike D objects b/c it's a black hole, I will continue to advocate him in the #4 spot. I think I explained above, but if you need it to be explained again I will do so later when I get back to NY.

me?
i think u guys desperatly need me back in that number 6 spot....4 wins though not bad..big improvement....but whats up those those crappy ass averages....i think u should all be looking to be playing in a womens arch softball league...next time im in town id like to come down and play with uguys if thats alright

I don't know if you're like, allowed to play (plus we don't have a uniform for you), unless you want to fill out some forms, but your mere presence would lift team morale, that's gotta be worth a few RBIs. Also I'm flattered to be batting 8th in 2 lineups, even though one of them is just in alphabetical order. It's funny how that lineup isn't so bad... Adam leading off, Mike N right where he wants to be, Mike D batting 5th, Justin batting 4th.

uniforms?
i still got mine from last year i think....i dont think ill be able to make this weekends gsme but expected to be in sometime in august....welll i think 4-12 is 4 more wins than we had last year..no? ill fill out the forms if im able to play...werd on the street is u guys get to play in some pretty sweet fields....

what street are you hearing these werds? Adam's lineup is correct....yes there was a correct answer to the question. Since Adam won, he gets a $20 gift certificate to applebees. And MA can play, forms are a joke and we have extra shirts. Once create a lineup is done can we play create a pitching plan

pete - you know your 1-6 of Adam #1, Nigel #2, Mike D #3, Justin #4, Andres #5 and Mike N #6 doesn't look half bad when you compare the current stats against compare mine and adams ideal line ups (adam, if we had that many players with a good OBA we would be 12-4 and not the other way round) - however why is it on game day your first 6 hitters never comes close to that?

as
I don't exactly understand your question Nigel. And just for reference, when I mentioned OBP 10 different times in my vague lineup with no names, that just meant descending order, as in, pick the guy with the next highest OBP for this spot because there is no other important stat to use here for any reason. Here is my explanation, again, for some of the lineup spots: 1-3: These are the table setters. There are all going to get up the first inning, we want to try and count on at least one of them to get in scoring position by the time our best hitter comes up. (1-2 should have high OBP AND be able to steal whenever they want, would be nice for 3 to steal too) 4: This should be our best hitter. IF ANY of the first 3 guys up get on base, which we are hoping for, than #4 WILL get up to bat unless there is a double play. For this reason, this is why the #4 hitter should be our best, because if he gets up in the first inning, that means there is at least one runner on base, hopefully in scoring position. If 1-3 go down in order, then this person becomes the new leadoff hitter the next inning, and will be expected to steal. Now I understand that TRADITIONALLY the best hitter goes in the number 3 spot. But you need to understand that this is in part due to protection. MLB teams put their power hitters in the numbers 4 and 5 spots to protect the best hitter so he doesn't get pitched around. I.E. teams may want to pitch around Babe Ruth, but they're not going to give him a free pass when the next guy up in Gehrig. Now realize that we are not in MLB. Unless Mike got intentionally walked 4 times this weekend than teams are not giving him free passes, so there is no reason to protect him. 5-6: Now I hate to put it this way, and really it's not entirely true so please don't take offense, but we strike out a lot, some more than others, and I consider these 2 guys to be the "last wall" of our offense. Whether we like it or not, we are about to have a few guys come up in our order that aren't hitting the ball incredibly well right now. (And as a side note, I'm sure you'll come around, I was there...the first year I played I got 1 hit the whole year and didn't start hitting till halfway through last year) So anways, these 2 guys need to be both low on K's AND low on walks. We don't want them to just keep the inning alive, we want bat on ball, we want balls in play, we want something to happen.

hey adam - your line up really worked a treat last night !! i think mike's alphabet order had more chance of scoring runs... oh, and you gotta laugh at the irony of getting shut down by an ex-beer, especially when we are so stretched for pitching at the moment. This is my new order 1. Somebody who can hit 2. Somebody who can hit 3. Somebody who can hit 4. Somebody who can hit 5. Somebody who can hit 6. Somebody who can hit 7. Somebody who can hit 8. Somebody who can hit 9. Somebody who can hit 10. Somebody who can hit