Who bats 9th?

[rwperu34]

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ortiz, you're not trying to maximize his rbi total, but to maximize your teams run total. While Ortiz might lose some RBI, they'd surely be picked up by Manny.

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Sure, but Manny would have just as many RBI if you bat him fourth and Ortiz third.

You are trying to maximize your teams runs by putting your players in a position where they can maximize thier production. Batting Ortiz second is not doing that. Ortiz is an RBI guy and should be put in as many RBI situations as possible. Same with Manny.

Nobody is saying to bat a weak hitter #2. What you want there is the best combination of average, speed, and on base ability. In the case of the '05 Red Sox, this would have been Bill Mueller, probably the teams fourth best hitter. The Red Sox were expecting Renteria to put up similar numbers to what Mueller actually put up, only with more speed. That's why he hit second most of the season.