Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason14h
Just curious, why do you believe this? I have never seen an evidence or managers/players dispute the fact that having a better hitter behind you doesn't increase your chance of seeing good pitches?
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I've read several statistical breakdowns that show there's no significant statistical benefit from hitting with protection. I'll try and dig up some articles now.
The problem is that players/managers all buy into traditional baseball logic, which can be terribly wrong, but no one will deviate from it. Good examples are a pitcher's W-L record being a good indicator of their ability, RBIs having any importance, and stolen bases having a significant importance. Looking at the numbers you can break down these beliefs in minutes, but you'd be hard pressed to find a manager that doesn't still hold them true.
EDIT: Here's a really good chapter from a really good book that breaks down protection:
http://books.google.com/books?id=uxd...esult#PPA45,M1
The Chapter starts on page 35 talking about how lineup order is essentially meaningless. Protection is brought up at the end of page 38.