St. Louis is Losing It.

No, not in employment, that already happened. Their writers are losing it when it comes to baseball. Just look at this article here:

Matt Holliday hit parade is also bashing Cardinals' books

Do you bat in the order where you should because of your production?

Before we go on look here or here for just a couple examples of what batting order means.
There's 20 or 30 studies you can find just by Googling 'batting order.' Conclusion, it matters very little. You can put the pitcher in the 3rd spot and it'll cost you team 1 or 2 wins a year. Obviously, you should be fired as a manager if you do that, but still, having Pujols bat 3rd or 4th is relatively meaningless.

Or should your production be judged by where you are in the batting order?

No, your goal, no matter where in the line up you hit, is to get on base. If you get on base 40% of the time and the manager bats you 8th it's not your fault. And you're not better than a guy batting 4th who's getting on base 41% of the time just because you're hitting 8th and less is expected from that spot.

That’s the $17-million question that St. Louis Cardinals’ management is now facing since Matt Holliday’s resurgence while batting second in the lineup.
The reigning NL Player of the week hit .435 with four home runs and eight RBIs during the seven days ending Sunday. The four home runs came against one of Holliday’s former teams and the one who traded him to the Cards last season, the Oakland A’s.

How ironical!


His torrid weekend also began two nights after he heard many boos after a rally-killing strikeout in the third game of the Seattle Mariners’ series, a 2-1 loss.

"They're not saying boo, they're saying 'Boo-urns'.

Holliday, for now, seems comfortable in the No. 2 slot. He hit another homer and had three hits, including an RBI double, in the Cardinals' 9-4 win Tuesday night in Toronto.

Wow, Holliday is "Man On Fire" staring Denzel Washington. Wish he played for my favorite team, they could use the offense in any spot in the their order.

But the organization is paying him to bat fourth behind Albert Pujols. Holliday was a flop in that role because of his lack of RBIs and home runs.

If he wasn't producing he was a flop in any place in the order. It's not like you shouldn't care that you're 8th hitter can't get on base. It hurts the team, no matter what spot it happens in.

The natural thought would be to move Holliday back to the No. 4 hole now that the pop seems to have returned to his bat.
This would be a mistake. But I can see why the Cardinals would want to do this as soon as possible.

I actually agree, don't mess with something that's working. It might not make any difference logically, but hey, if Holliday is hitting like a beast out of the two spot and was hitting like Juan Pierre in the fourth spot then leave well enough alone.

The franchise is faced with paying Pujols a huge amount of money in the next year. If he wants to be a Cardinal, he might have to forego asking for an MLB record contract. But he could still be the game’s highest-paid player.

I kinda get it. I'm not sure. Some numbers would have been helpful here. For instance A-Rod is making 33 Mil a year (The top 4 players in salary this year are ALL on the Yankees/Number 5 is on the Mets). Pujols is not even in the top 25 this year. He's making 14.5 Mil this year. Less than all these players. (Geez, Todd Helton makes more than Pujols.)

The Cardinals certainly have a financial plan that includes having Pujols as a member of the team. But that plan also has $17-million allotted annually to the guy who is supposed to bat fourth. But that player is now batting second in the order.

4th or 2nd, I don't see how it matters, you had the money to spend, you spent it, you're getting production. Seems like it worked out to me.

Holliday’s contribution helped the Cardinals take over first place from the upstart Cincinnati Reds over the past weekend. If his hot streak continues, the Redbirds would be a favorite to win the NL championship and play in the World Series.
I’ve always figured that winning the title was the goal of any season, and if you accomplish that, what difference did it make who batted where in the lineup?

Boom! You nailed it on the head Alvin Reid.

That still makes sense for the Cardinals - but only for this season.
If Holliday is the No 2 hitter, does that make Ryan Ludwick your No. 4 hitter? Last time I looked the guys who bat fourth in the majors make a lot of money.

Not if he plays for the Royals. He makes more than like, a teacher, but he's also vastly more important than teacher. Guillen and Butler have split time batting 4th for the Royals. Butler makes $470,000 and Guillen makes...WOW 12 frickin million. Jose Guillen only makes 2 Mil. less than Pujols. I guess I was wrong there.
Alright better example for me, Pittsburgh. Garrett Jones makes $425,000.
Or, Oakland: Kouzmanoff makes 3.1 Mil; Suzuki makes $420,000.
There point proven. Guys how bat 4th tend to be the guys with the most power potential on the team. They don't bat there just because they're getting paid a lot.

Look no further than Holliday to prove that point. His dollars are based on him batting fourth.

I guess if you're going on the loose theory that he is supposed to "protect" Pujols, then yes that's what he was paid for. But mostly, he was paid to produce. And that is what he's doing. At the exact same rate as last year when you went out and got him. Seems like you got what you paid for. In fact his fielding has been twice as good as last year. Nice little bonus.

Every game in which Holliday hits second is more ammunition for Ludwick’s agent to demand more money for his client in the upcoming contract negotiation battle.

Yeah, but if his agent is purely arguing that Ludwick should get more for being a 4th hitter, you should laugh in his face and look for other options.

After all, he’s batting fourth. By the way, he’s also in a slump.

Yes, over the last 11 games he's in a slump. 11 games. Out of a 162 game season. And he was playing out of his mind earlier in the year, Ludwick was bound to come back to Earth. He's at his yearly average this season in OPS and well ahead of last year.

So is Colby Rasmus. Rasmus’ sudden rapid decline came about the same time he surrendered the No. 2 slot to Holliday.

Colby has fluctuated over the same amount of time (though he has 5 homers in those 11 games), it has not been a sudden decline. It's been gradual due to a poor OBP. He's well above where he was last season.

My advice to the Cardinals is to not move Holliday back to the No. 4 slot. For at least this year, let him do his thing before Pujols bats.

Sounds good, I agreed earlier with that.

Pujols has not responded in kind to Holliday’s hot streak.

Why would he? Do they have some sort of mind meld going on?

But, like so many other fans, I really do think he will have a stunning second half of the season.

Pujols' OPS is .962 this year. Sure, that's not great for PUJOLS, but still. Over the same time period of the last 11 games he's putting up the same stats as Rasmus, but for opposite reasons (getting on base a lot, not much power). The point being, no one in the line up is in that bad of a slump. Reid is seeing something that is not there.

Well, let me temper that by adding that Pujols’ second half will be super if he stays free from injury. I still wonder if he is injured right now.

That's a scary concept if this is how he plays when he's hurt. He's only ARGUABLY the best hitter in the league as opposed to INARGUABLY the best.

By keeping Holliday at No. 2, the Cardinals are straying from what accountants know is best for the franchise. In other words, what the best way is for the Cards’ owners to earn a profit while also competing for the playoffs.

What do accountants care if the No. 2 hitter is better than the No. 4 hitter?

I was a strong advocate of the St. Louis Rams drafting Sam Bradford with the NFL’s first pick not only for his talent, but also because of the investment.
If I were an owner I would not pay a defensive tackle – even one as gifted as Ndamukong Suh – as much money a quarterback drafted in the first round.

I agree there, but that is not an apt comparison.

The position being played does make a difference. It is very dramatic in football. It is much more subtle in baseball when it comes to the batting order. But it does make a difference.

No it really doesn't. Not at all. Paying a great #2 hitter a lot of money is just as valuable as paying a great #4 hitter the same money for the same production.

That’s where the Cardinals are right now; they are happy for Holliday’s hit parade. Yet, the franchise is faced with the fact his move to No. 2 throws a wrench in the financial mechanism.

Are you serious that the Cardinals base their budget on batting order? That's completely ridiculous if it's true. That means you're accepting mediocrity from certain batting positions since you won't pay players in them above a certain amount. Well, that works for the Yankees right?

The move could easily lead to Ludwick being low-balled in contract negotiations and his moving on to another team.

Because of where he bats you're going to low-ball him? Don't teams generally try to do that anyway? If he expects more money because he's producing more, then he's right to do so. If he expects more money for the same production at a different spot in the lineup then I'd say "bye, bye, bye" (BOOM!!! A 90's N'sync reference. Frickin sweet. That's how you lower the comedic hammer).


The move could also lead to further offensive woes this season for Ludwick and Rasmus.

Read above, they're not doing that badly.

But the move could also help put the Cards in the World Series.

If you believe the move would make your better hitters worse than how would it help get you to the World Series? Magic and Fairy dust? (I wish I had seen Avatar because I bet I could make a reference to that movie right here.)

Isn’t that the object of the game?

No, apparently it's to make sure your players bat in an order based on what you paid them.

Case Closed.