Let’s get this out of the way before we get into anything else: the batting order is not a huge deal. Yes, this post is about the batting order (in particular, the third spot), but it’s not made with the pretense that this is a particularly make-or-break issue. Rather, the reason why I think this warrants a post is because despite the relative non-salience of batting order considerations, some of the arguments about these considerations are lacking. In particular, and to avoid mincing words: if you focus solely on opportunities to hit with men on base (or, even worse, men in scoring position) as a way of justifying your batting order choices, you’re not looking at the whole picture, and thus using suboptimal reason.
There’s a dark side to batting a great hitter third
