GDT @ Mets 4/26

I have no idea if line protection is real or not. I do wonder how you would go about proving it or disproving it though. If you plugged Rizzo 7th in the braves' lineup, would his numbers be the same as in the cubs' lineup? If FF were hitting 8th in the braves' lineup, would his numbers be the same?
 
Gsellman's pitch count is through the roof right now. Hopefully, we can get into their bullpen early in this series.
 
msstate7 said:
I have no idea if line protection is real or not. I do wonder how you would go about proving it or disproving it though. If you plugged Rizzo 7th in the braves' lineup, would his numbers be the same as in the cubs' lineup? If FF were hitting 8th in the braves' lineup, would his numbers be the same?
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Hitting 8th will inflate your OBP (see Swanson for most recent example). But yes for pretty much any other spot pitchers are going to pitch you the same regardless of who is coming after you. The only slight difference you might see is if you have a great basestealer in front of you that gets on base. The pitcher may tend to throw you more fastballs. The whole idea of protection is that player A will get more fastballs to hit so he's not walked in fear of player B (usually a good hitter in their own right) hitting with someone on base. Freeman is proving to be one of the best hitters in the game and already the best hitter on the team. Why would you feed that guy fastballs (that he can crush) in fear that you don't walk him so Kemp (a lessor hitter) can hit with someone on base.

I mean can't we look at Swanson as the most recent example that this logic is flawed. He did not get a constant stream of fastball when Freeman (top 5 hitter in baseball currently) was hitting behind him.
 
msstate7 said:
I have no idea if line protection is real or not. I do wonder how you would go about proving it or disproving it though. If you plugged Rizzo 7th in the braves' lineup, would his numbers be the same as in the cubs' lineup? If FF were hitting 8th in the braves' lineup, would his numbers be the same?
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Google it and learn.
 
Enscheff said:
You'll have to ask the folks around here that think Freeman took off because he had KEMvP hitting behind him.

I'm still trying to understand the phenomenon myself.
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So, think about when you joined this board. There were a couple guys who were insufferable assholes. Then you started posting, and we forgot all about how obnoxious those guys were.

Your AH+ has been 189 since you were called up. You offered poster lineup protection.
 
thewupk said:
Hitting 8th will inflate your OBP (see Swanson for most recent example). But yes for pretty much any other spot pitchers are going to pitch you the same regardless of who is coming after you. The only slight difference you might see is if you have a great basestealer in front of you that gets on base. The pitcher may tend to throw you more fastballs. The whole idea of protection is that player A will get more fastballs to hit so he's not walked in fear of player B (usually a good hitter in their own right) hitting with someone on base. Freeman is proving to be one of the best hitters in the game and already the best hitter on the team. Why would you feed that guy fastballs (that he can crush) in fear that you don't walk him so Kemp (a lessor hitter) can hit with someone on base.

I mean can't we look at Swanson as the most recent example that this logic is flawed. He did not get a constant stream of fastball when Freeman (top 5 hitter in baseball currently) was hitting behind him.
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So an 8th place hitter will see less hittable pitches bc of pitcher behind him? Doesn't that at least prove it to some degree?
 
msstate7 said:
So an 8th place hitter will see less hittable pitches bc of pitcher behind him? Doesn't that at least prove it to some degree?
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There are certain game situations where a hitter will get pitched around but these are very specific. Sure, there may be a few ABs throughout the year where having Kemp behind Freeman means that Freeman gets pitched to instead of blatantly pitched around if a lessor hitter was behind him. But there isn't going to be a situation where Freeman is fed fastballs because Kemp is behind him instead of say Garcia. That's just not how it works.
 
thewupk said:
There are certain game situations where a hitter will get pitched around but these are very specific. Sure, there may be a few ABs throughout the year where having Kemp behind Freeman means that Freeman gets pitched to instead of blatantly pitched around if a lessor hitter was behind him. But there isn't going to be a situation where Freeman is fed fastballs because Kemp is behind him instead of say Garcia. That's just not how it works.
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Gotcha
 
To clarify. Pitching around a hitter because of who is behind you does happen. A hitter getting good pitches to hit because of who is behind you doesn't happen. Again there are some caveats like when a good base stealer is on base. That hitter may get more fastballs to try and avoid the steal. But that's not what I would consider lineup protection.
 
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