SAVING PLATE APPEARANCES

July 27,  2025

By Frank Hopkins

Carolina Stars

 I haven’t written anything in a while, so I thought I would take some time to bring up a discussion that I have had with a couple other GMs.  How many Plate Appearances can you really expect to save by moving batters down in the lineup?  To start, let’s look at some actual data from the 2016 season (from FanGraphs):

Based on these numbers, in the extreme, you can expect to be able to save almost 145 at bats. Of course, this would be moving someone from the first spot in the batting order to the 9th spot and do it for the entire season.  That changes dramatically as you move down the batting order and when in the season you make the change.  For instance, moving someone from the fifth spot to the ninth spot starting with game # 82, gains you about 38 PAs.  Not quite as dramatic.  Generally, you save 1 PA per 10 games per place in the batting order.  These numbers can change, depending on how much offense your team generates.  Anyway, not making any judgements here, just presenting it as a point of discussion and to (maybe) help when trying to make some decisions as the season progresses.

 Frank...!