I recently found BRef's play index event finder after reading a FG chat with Jeff Sullivan. He used it to answer a question about how many PAs a particular spot in the lineup has had RISP.
I did a similar check for all team in 2016, and got results that seem reasonable (% values added by me):
4th: 5961 (12.93%)
3rd: 5579 (12.10%)
5th: 5487 (11.90%)
6th: 5011 (10.87%)
2nd: 4955 (10.74%)
7th: 4927 (10.68%)
8th: 4927 (10.68%)
9th: 4794 (10.40%)
1st: 4475 (9.70%)
Teams want their 3-4-5 hitters to hit with RISP, and the league as a whole accomplished that. The league as a whole was able to focus 37% of the PAs with RISP into the 3 slots in the lineup traditionally occupied by the highest impact hitters.
Looking at the Braves in 2016:
4th: 227 (13.67%)
8th: 198 (11.92%)
5th: 197 (11.86%)
9th: 187 (11.26%)
7th: 177 (10.66%)
3rd: 173 (10.42%)
1st: 171 (10.30%)
6th: 169 (10.17%)
2nd: 162 (9.75%)
Atlanta, we have a problem. Freeman should have had 201 PAs with RISP with league average lineup construction. That is 28 PAs with RISP that didn't go to Freeman, and instead went to the Braves 8th place hitter (mostly).
So what happened? Why did the Braves best hitter come to the plate in only 10.42% of the team's PAs with RISP when the rest of the league would have had him at the plate in 12.10% of those PAs?
The most obvious answer is to look at who batted in front of Freeman. So using the same tool, here are the PAs in the 2 hole from last season:
Adonis Garcia 217
Ender Inciarte 113
Chase d'Arnaud 111
Gordon Beckham 103
Erick Aybar 77
Daniel Castro 63
Nick Markakis 40
Dansby Swanson 4
Jeff Francoeur 2
Reid Brignac 2
Drew Stubbs 1
Julio Teheran 1
Rio Ruiz 1
There's the problem! The Braves insisted on treating the #2 hole in the lineup like it was the place to stick a garbage hitter just because he batted RHed. Almost 600 PAs went to hitters named Garcia, d'Arnaud, Beckham, Aybar and Castro. Ouch!
Remember when Garcia was "hot" for like 2 weeks and everyone said it was smart to stick him in the 2 hole? Remember when I said he would be left there way too long and hurt the team's offense?
How bad did it hurt the offense?
It robbed the best hitter on the team of 28 PAs with RISP.