One Barry and a bunch of scrubs?

by salb918 on Sep 22, 2005 7:51 AM PDT

Sorry to pimp my own website again, but...

Article on lineup construction at Beyond the Boxscore, which talks about the relative benefits of having a Giants-type of lineup with one elite offensive player and a bunch of average ones as opposed to a "deep" lineup. Might be of interest to Giants fans.

as baseball fans, we often talk about consistency and balance, as if we recognize, even if dimly, that there is some sort of value in predictability. This manifests itself in a lot of ways, but there's one idea in particular that I am going investigate today.

Let me ask you a question: would you rather have an offense of one premiere offensive player and a bunch of average hitters or a deep offense of above average hitters?

I'll be more specific. You can choose between these two lineups:

STAR AND SCRUBS EVEN STEVENS
1 Scrub 270/333/433 Steven 277/340/452
2 Scrub 270/333/433 Steven 277/340/452
3 Star 333/400/600 Steven 277/340/452
4 Scrub 270/333/433 Steven 277/340/452
5 Scrub 270/333/433 Steven 277/340/452
6 Scrub 270/333/433 Steven 277/340/452
7 Scrub 270/333/433 Steven 277/340/452
8 Scrub 270/333/433 Steven 277/340/452
9 Scrub 270/333/433 Steven 277/340/452

Team averages: 277/340/452

(Stats are AVG/OBP/SLG)

Read it here.

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Comments

Deep Sal

But where did you get such good "scrubs"? They're barely worse than the "stevens". What about that scrub who plays second: good glove, no hit (.992 fielding pct./ with .235/.310/.400 batting numbers)? I guess the scrubs just seem too much like stevens to me.

by WilbertR on Sep 23, 2005 3:26 PM PDT reply actions

.270/.333/.433?

Half of this year's team can only dream about those numbers.

by Salemicus on Sep 23, 2005 4:06 PM PDT reply actions

The Scrubs

are AL 2004 league-average hitters.

A more realistic way (and more time-intensive way) would be to calculated the league average 2B, 1B, LF, etc. For example, it would be more useful to have a superstar 2B than a superstar LF (unless he's Bonds). That would be a good exercise. Thanks for the suggestsions.

by salb918 on Sep 24, 2005 10:03 AM PDT reply actions