It's not just the difference between 2 and 3. It's Alvarez, Bregman, Abreu, Tucker (whatever the order) all get fewer.Ag_07 said:
What's the difference in ABs between the 2 and 3 spots?
Is it that big to sacrifice not having Pena on in front of Yordan and this missing RBIs or getting good pitches for Yordan because Jose and/or Pena are on?
That's an interesting exercise to crunch numbers on.
Here are the PA per lineup spot for 2022 HOU.
1. 741
2. 726
3. 700
4. 688
5. 671
6. 657
The options would be.
Pena bats 2 and Alvarez, Bregman, Abreu, & Tucker get 2716 PA
Pena doesn't bat 2 and Alvarez, Bregman, Abreu, & Tucker get 2785 PA (+69... nice)
Obviously, they're not going to be every PA either.
I think the better pitches for Pena are overstated. When I looked at the differences in pitch mix last Sept, it wasn't all that significant. I'll have to do it again. See if the fastball % & zone % go up or not.