Is not a whole lot different that what we’d be using now since Coop’s line up change (assuming Kaz was healthy) except that you are swapping Bourn and Wiggy.

And you’re making that line up based on what the players have done for the entire year. Or rather, an average of what they have done. Don’t you think it would be more productive to follow trends and work with how the player has done in the past 30 days or something?

And how do you set your line up at the beginning of the year? Based on last year’s performance? Certainly Towles would have been much higher in your line up than eighth. Or do you use spring training numbers? That would be more realistic, but then many times we are hitting against AAA players looking for a job on a Major League team. At least later in games when veteran starting position players are likely to be out and younger starters (Like Pence and Bourn) are likely to be in. Woldn’t that artificially inflate the younger players’ stats?

And it also doesn’t account for base running. Shouldn’t the guy most likely to score from 1st on a double be hitting one or two spots in front of the guy most likely to hit a double? And what about guy’s base stealing abilities? If he steals a base 10% or 20% of the time he gets on base with a single or double, shouldn’t that make him more valuable in front of guys with high batting average and not exactly OBP? That is to say, if Bourn hits a double and steals third.. would you rather a .300 hitter with a .330 OBP next or a .270 hitter with a .360 OBP next? And regardless of who you pick, wouldn’t you like a guy that can turn a single into a double and a double into a triple be on base in front of your best hitters? A walk is fine, but it doesn’t advance the runners (who are not on first) and OBP is essentially AVG + Walks.

I didn’t mean to go so much into it. I just meant to write that first line and the words just started flowing.. But I don’t think making a line up is as easy as just putting the people with high OBP at the top.

I’ve never seen the point of batting the base stealer first, when that means that very often he will be held because the 3rd or 4th hitter is up. The Big Red Machine used to have Cesar Geronimo in the 8th spot with very good results. He gets to second to avoid the double play and can be driven in by the high OBP leadoff (Rose).