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Before every Major League Baseball game, including the World Series being played this week, a baseball team manager has to present his starting batting order to the umpire.聽 This is one of the most important decisions that a team manager has to make. In putting together this batting order - the sequence in which the team will bat during the game - the manager is trying to give his team the best chance to win the game. To do this, the manager must know each of his player's strengths and weaknesses, and place each player in the line-up in a position where the team is most likely to be able to capitalize on each player's individual success, or to overcome their weakness.

Let's take the National League Champion St. Louis Cardinals' line up for example. During the World Series, Future Hall of Fame Manager Tony La Russa batted Rafael Furcal leadoff in his line-up. La Russa put Furcal in this position because he is one of the fastest players on the team and also has a high on-base percentage (percentage of times a batter gets on base). In other words, La Russa knew that Furcal's strengths are the ability to get on base to start the game and then be able to move quickly around the bases to score runs. Jon Jay batted second because he also gets on base a high percentage of the time and can hopefully move Furcal along towards scoring a run. Moving down the order, a manager wants the 3rd, 4th and 5th hitters to be the power hitters who can potentially drive in the batters who precede them in the line-up. For example, La Russa's number 3 hitter was one of the best players in baseball, Albert Pujols, who gets on base and also has the strong chance of hitting a home run to drive in the other hitters, as Texas discovered in Game 3 of the series, when Pujols hit three home runs - tying the major league record for number of home runs hit during a World Series game - and, thanks to his number 3 position in the line-up, batted in 6 runs. The number 6-8 hitters in a line-up are typically hitting lower in the order because they are not as proficient hitters, though La Russa still wants them in the game as they are still his good defensive players despite their offensive weakness. And last but not least, the pitcher hits ninth in the line up since his strengths typically reside in his pitching and not hitting.

- Article by Karl Moore and Devin Bigoness

Read full article: , October 28, 2011