Why does the pitcher have to bat 9th?

Fascinating stuff guys. How important is it to have someone who does not have many ground ball A chances on their card batting second? Someone mentioned they put their best true hitter second in the lineup as opposed to third, but what if that guy has a ton of ground ball As on his card. Also, what about having a positive clutch hitter 5th? I like to have speed and OBP in the one hole and speed in the 9th spot as well.

Maybe I overrate this but refuse to put a high DP guy second. I like to use people like Bernadina or Murphy in the 2nd slot.

Now maybe it's confirmation bias but it does seem to help. Though admittedly the high DP players still manage to ground into them all the time.

The 8 spot gets more at bats than the 9 spot, but only rarely does it affect whether it is a pinch hitting situation or not. So I'd say every 4 or 5 games you will get a scenario where you are robbed of an extra inning from your pitcher or have the pitcher hit in a big spot and 2 outs late in the game. So 30 or 40 spots like that is really the downside. However, for the first 6 innings of every game you will have a 20% better obp from your 9 hitter, or about every 1.5 games you will get him on base an extra time for your leadoff hitter. Throw in that the pitcher will end many innings, and you're going to have many extra situations for your 1 and 2 hitters.

But it all depends on who you have. With a deep lineup and starters who go deep into games, 9th makes sense. But I tend to think that 8th does in maybe 2/3 of teams and starters.

I also believe your best base stealer should bat six or seven because the bottom of the order is where you need to manufacture runs by stealing, bunting, hit/running etc so a speed demon can get you more runs at the bottom of the order than in the 1 hole. Who wants to run in front of your power hitters anyway?

The advantage of your fast guy at the top of the lineup is his threat to steal as much as the actual steal itself. When a team has to hold a runner, the average of following batters goes up and the chance of double play goes down since the rating of a middle infielder and the first baseman are reduced by one. (In real life, there is also this benefit; the SOM fielding reductions simply mimic the real life benefit.)

I love the idea of turning traditional wisdom on its head and trying new things, like different lineup philosophies...

I'm only in DH leagues, but I always have a cheap middle infielder, the weak spot in my lineup, and I've had success lately batting him (my worst hitter) 7th and putting a better, faster high-OBP player at 9...

I always bat my studs 1-2, regardless of their power numbers...for me it's often Votto and Ortiz, both with OBP over .400...my thinking is that over the course of a season, those two will get more at-bats at the top of the order, probably around 60-70 more, than either would get as the #4 hitter...logically, the players at the top of the lineup will get up more than the bottom of the lineup; that's basic...and I'd prefer it was Votto and Ortiz getting those extra at-bats, rather than Coco Crisp or some other "traditional" lead-off hitter...

Of course, Votto and Ortiz are also big RBI guys, so you want runners on base ahead of them...that's where having a high-OBP #9 hitter can help...he'll get on base for the big hitters...and of course you want to follow the big hitters with power, such as Riddick, Davis or even Granderson...they may not get on base as much, but they hit their share of homers, and you want those homers to come with men on base...

To me it's all about turning the lineup over and getting those extra at-bats for your studs, preferably with men on base...

It's a hundred little things that add up to a system that works...pick a system and trust it!

Good luck all :}