Simply, does who is hitting next in the batting order impact the current at bat? Clearly, there is some impact since a player may be intentionally walked, but is there any impact beyond that? The real-life example is that some argue that you had to pitch to Roger Maris because you otherwise did not want to risk walking Maris and putting another baserunner on when Mickey Mantle got up to bat.

The question behind the question is to what extent might an ostensibly good hitter (based on ratings) under-perform on a bad team since he's the only good hitter in the lineup (and vice-versa)? Or is hitting variance true randomness and otherwise not meaningfully impacted by the batting order? Thanks!

Sadly I don't think it does but I wish it did. It would add more strategy if there was a 'likely to walk'. If you had guys with great control you could chose to target more off of the plate and be ok if you walk them vs throwing more fastball strikes to guys with a .190 avg.

Sadly I think intentionally walking is the only thing that will matter in terms of batting order.