Originally Posted by Wally Mo Pena
Because I was curious, I checked out the rbi production by batting order and the average OPS from each spot in the lineup (1 Through 8). The argument has been over whether fifth is not a good rbi spot in the lineup or not. Some have said that batting fifth you won’t see enough pitches to hit, or have enough people on base in front of you to produce, and that that’s why Dunn hasn’t been up to par. This is what it looks like across the majors so far this season:
…RBI..OPS
1. 23.8 .757
2. 23.9 .715
3. 34.3 .820
4. 37.4 .829
5. 34.1 .800
6. 30.9 .789
7. 25.8 .698
8. 23.3 .692
It looks pretty much like I thought it might, where the HEART OF THE ORDER (that is 3, 4, 5) is where most of your runs come from. It looks like third and fifth get about the same number of RBI, 4th gets the most (cleanup), and that fifth has a lower OPS than third. The lower OPS makes me think that there are probably a few less pitches to hit in the 5 hole, but as far as this distribution goes, it’s still the 3rd best spot to hit in terms of production, by RBI or OPS. Also, 6th looks pretty good as well. This makes me think even more that Dunn has not produced as well as his OPS might indicate.