Daily Archives: January 13, 2017

Sully Baseball Daily Podcast – January 13, 2017

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It is Friday the 13th, a day that brings up issues of luck and good fortune. Some players had horrible luck. Others had obscenely good luck.

Avoid guys in hockey masks on this episode of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.

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This and That, Odds and Ends: Hall of Fame Edition

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Curt Schilling’s legend was built on blood and guts and grit – but he seems intent on undoing it with bile and bigotry.

The HOF is populated by cheaters, gamblers, racists, drunks, and abusers of women. It’s also filled with kind, decent, generous men. One’s view on where Schilling lands on this character spectrum is irrelevant when assessing his qualifications as a player (well… unless of course you invoke the character clause).

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Who Were the Top-Performing Hitters at Each Lineup Spot During the 2016 MLB Season?

All baseball players – whether they’re amateurs or professionals – are creatures of habit. When you have a game to play every day, routines form (some on purpose, some by accident) and once a player notices those routines, they typically like to keep them as they are.

Advanced statistics have helped organizations and coaching staffs justify tinkering lineups on a daily basis, but one thing is for certain – most hitters like coming to the ballpark knowing exactly where their name will be penciled into the order.

It makes mentally preparing a lot easier, and they don’t have to wonder when they’ll get their first plate appearance of the night.

With that in mind, I was curious as to which hitters performed the best in 2016 at each particular lineup spot. The only criteria was sample size – 1-5 hitters needed at least 400 plate appearances to qualify, but it dropped to 250-plus for the six-hole and 200-plus for the bottom-third to generate players to choose from.

Here are your most dominant hitters at each lineup spot from 2016, ranked by wRC+.

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