Which Lineup Strategy is Best?--The answer is here

[seddrah]

There is great online "tool" that will allow you to optimize your lineup. You simply input the 9 guys you want to start and list each's OBP and SLG% and the tool will shuffle all the numbers and figure out exactly which order you should bat each guy--in other words which order of guys would generate the most number of scored runs.

http://www.baseballmusings.com/cgi-bin/LineupAnalysis.py

I'm at work and don't have my current numbers with me, but I will run this tool maybe later tonight and see how close I already am to LINEUP MAXIMIZATION!!!

currently when I sim against righties, this is the lineup I use (we'll start here and then I'll list the "suggested" lineup next post)

SIMMED LINEUP v. RIGHTIES

CF. Rickey
SS. Larkin
RF. Sierra
1B. McGriff
LF. Burks
3B. Palmer
C. Sandy
2B. Robbie
P.

LINEUP v. Righties when I actually play the game:

LF. Rickey
SS. Larkin
1B. McGriff
P. Stetson
2B. Andres
RF. Sierra or Burks
3B. Julio
C. Benito
CF. Rock Jr.

I'm going to run both options to see what is suggested. I should point out that I will take the advice with one non-negotiable fact--and that is Rickey is "The Leadoff Man" on my team regardless. Everyone else can be rearranged (and will). I'm excited to find out the results of this.

Optimizing lineup strategy is a very interesting science to me.

more to follow.

 

[seddrah]

I ran my lineup that I used last season to see how "optimal" it was. Turns out I was doing OK, but not great.

Here is what I used in the games I controlled:

Henderson / Baerga / McGriff / Stetson / Sierra / Larkin / Burks / Santiago / Alomar

This lineup generated 5.84 runs a game according to the calculator. I actually underacheived in my season, scorring just 4.68 runs a game.

The optimal lineup, generating 5.92 runs a game was:

Baerga / McGriff / Larkin / Sierra / Stetson / Santiago / Henderson / Alomar / Burks

sorry, but no way I give Rickey the 7th slot in the order. the calculation doesn't understand what Rickey brings to the table.

Interesting experiment, but the most I might do is tweak the lineup a bit.

The recommendation always has the top OBP guy leadoff, followed by the guy with the highest OPS (OBP + SLG). I might tweak it by using Rickey first, but the 2nd guy will be the top OBP guy on my team and third will be highest OPS. we'll see how that works.

Maybe I will set my sim lineup v. righties to be Rickey, followed by highest OBP, then highest to lowest OPS from there.

wish me luck.