Lineup Value

It's important to remember where a player hits in the lineup when it comes to projecting runs and RBI. If you draft a bunch of leadoff hitters, you'll probably win the runs category but finish near the bottom in RBI. Instinctively, we all know that #3 and #4 hitters are valuable, but I've attempted to quantify it here.

Here's the method: I found the average runs scored and RBI for each batting order spot last year. Then, I put those averages into an otherwise average fantasy team - that is, an offense that would finish in the middle of the pack in all fantasy categories. To illustrate, a completely average fantasy player has about 86 runs and 84 RBI (in a 12-team standard Yahoo league). So, if you take a team a team of eight of those guys plus an average leadoff hitter, you would expect to score 794 runs (8x86 plus 106) and have 740 RBI (8x84 plus 68). That makes your team above average in runs and below average in RBI. Then the question becomes: how many additional points could you expect to earn or lose (in a roto league) with this team of eight average players plus a typical leadoff hitter versus a team of nine completely average players? The answer is below in the far right column.



I didn't bother with the number nine spot for two reasons: 1) pitchers in the NL skew the results and 2) you really shouldn't be drafting #9 hitters anyway.

I was expecting #3 hitters to be the most valuable, so this was an interesting result.

You can see who is set to benefit from their spot in the lineup with my projected AL lineups and projected NL lineups.