Posted by shobob on 1/12/2012 11:56:00 PM (view original):
I understand that rationale. People who are probably much smarter than me worked out that "put a poor hitter in the 3 hole" idea. But isn't it also true that something like around 55% of the time, the third guy comes to bat with a guy on first or second to start out a game? That makes me think that having a good power bat in there is a good idea. That's just my own thought on the matter.
It is not that you should put a poor hitter in the third spot, but that you should hit your fourth or fifth best hitter third in the lineup because you can focus less on OBP and contact skills in that spot. And, really, your fourth or fifth best hitter should still provide solid production; if not you probably will not be scoring many runs no matter what your lineup looks like.
For me, I like a power hitter in the third spot. Probably not my best power hitter, but a guy who can slug around 500 and not kill me with a horrible on base percentage. Then hit my best all-around hitter either second or fourth. And that really depends on the nature of my best hitter and how the rest of my offense profiles.