Re: Who bats 9th?
The logic is you put a guy with more OBP and speed in the 9th hole to act as a table setter for your teams better hitters, especially if you have some power in the 1 and 2 holes. In most cases, it would be between the guys batting 8th and 9th. Every now and then a team might drop a player from 7th to 9th to act as a table setter.
In the NL it doesn't work as well, because there are very few instances where the pitcher is not the worst hitter on the team. If it were ever close, the pitcher would most likely have more speed and be a better table setter.
LaRussa used to bat the pitcher 8th on occasion when Mark McGwire was bopping 60+ HR's per year.
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