The Impact Of The Batting Order...NL Central

Managers need to consider the position in the batting order that their late round draftees might be occupying. It’s clear that the earlier your player bats in the order, the more chances to produce stats to help win your league. Whether it is H2H or Roto, batting order position over the course of the 162 game schedules can affect your hitting categories, with the biggest impact being on R and in some cases HR and RBI.

Here is a look at the NL numbers over the last three seasons based on position in the batting order, excluding the pitchers spot (well except in St. Louis where LaRussa bats his pitcher 8^th). This clearly shows the difference between hitting first in the lineup and eighth is a little over 120 at bats, which is almost like getting or losing a full month of stats over the course of the season. It is clear the biggest impact is for runs scored where the difference is a little over 40 runs a season which is a huge amount!

Order	AB	Average	Runs	Hits	HR	RBI
1	682	0.269	103	184	15	64
2	665	0.275	97	183	14	68
3	634	0.287	100	182	25	98
4	624	0.273	91	170	28	105
5	613	0.261	83	160	23	92
6	602	0.259	73	156	20	80
7	590	0.255	66	150	15	74
8	563	0.246	60	139	11	61

I will give you the probable line-ups for each team per division. I have made decisions on starters regarding platoons and injuries to limit one player per batting position. If you are on the fence over a couple of players to select late in your draft consider batting position as one factor. Example: a 4^TH OF decision within this division could be Stubbs batting 2^nd over Soriano batting 7^th this year.

NL CENTRAL

CHICAGO	CINCINNATI
1. 2B Blake DeWitt	1. 2B Brandon Phillip
2. SS Starlin Castro	2. CF Drew Stubbs
3. 3B Aramis Ramirez	3. 1B Joey Votto
4. 1B Carlos Pena	4. 3B Scott Rolen
5. CF Marlon Byrd	5. RF Jay Bruce
6. RF Tyler Colvin	6. LF Jonny Gomes
7. LF Alfonso Soriano	7. C Ramon Hernandez
8. C Geovany Soto	8. SS Paul Janish

HOUSTON	MILWAUKEE
1. CF Michael Bourn	1. 2B Rickie Weeks
2. SS Clint Barmes	2. RF Corey Hart
3. RF Hunter Pence	3. LF Ryan Braun
4. LF Carlos Lee	4. 1B Prince Fielder
5. 3B Chris Johnson	5. 3B Casey McGehee
6. 1B Brett Wallace	6. SS Yuniesky Betancourt
7. 2B Bill Hall	7. C Jonathan Lucroy
8. C Jason Castro	8. CF Carlos Gomez

PITTSBURGH	ST. LOUIS
1. CF Andrew McCutchen	1. 2B Skip Schumaker
2. LF Jose Tabata	2. CF Colby Rasmus
3. 2B Neil Walker	3. 1B Albert Pujols
4. 3B Pedro Alvarez	4. LF Matt Holliday
5. RF Matt Diaz	5. RF Lance Berkman
6. 1B Lyle Overbay	6. C Yadier Molina
7. SS Ronny Cedeno	7. 3B David Freese
8. C Chris Snyder	8. SS Ryan Theriot