Well, it certainly can't be the number nine slot for any National League team, now can it? Well, actually, it is. Or almost. The number nine slot for the Milwaukee Brewers, normally a slot reserved for the pitcher to hit, is one of the best in baseball this season.
Thus far this year, the Brewers have adopted the new Tony La Russa strategy of batting the pitcher eighth instead of ninth. And they are reaping rewards. Thanks to Jason Kendall primarily, the Brewers number nine slot has an OPS (On-base Plus Slugging percentage) of 1.364. That's third best in all of baseball.
Here are the top ten batting slots in baseball so far (out of 270 total batting slots in MLB):
| Team | Slot | OPS | Primary player |
| Phillies | 5 | 1.434 | Pat Burrell |
| Diamondbacks | 7 | 1.398 | Justin Upton |
| Brewers | 9 | 1.364 | Jason Kendall |
| Tigers | 9 | 1.328 | Brandon Inge |
| Cubs | 5 | 1.289 | Kosuke Fukudome |
| Cubs | 3 | 1.288 | Derrek Lee |
| Marlins | 1 | 1.285 | Hanley Ramirez |
| White Sox | 5 | 1.270 | Jermaine Dye |
| Rangers | 7 | 1.226 | David Murphy |
| Phillies | 3 | 1.207 | Chase Utley |
I'm still on the fence as to whether I'm a believer in batting the pitcher eighth instead of ninth, but the Brewers are probably pleased. A key question is whether they would have scored just as many (or more) runs if they got the same production from Jason Kendall batting eighth.
Here is the complete run-down of performance by batting position for the Milwaukee Brewers, as found on Bill James Online:
| Milwaukee Brewers |
| 2008 |
| | | | | Pos | Players | Avg | | OBP | Slg | | OPS | | 1 | Weeks (6 G) | .250 | | .379 | .417 | | .796 | | 2 | Kapler (3 G), Gwynn (2 G), Gross (1 G) | .417 | | .407 | .583 | | .991 | | 3 | Fielder (6 G) | .348 | | .429 | .435 | | .863 | | 4 | Braun (6 G) | .321 | | .321 | .607 | | .929 | | 5 | Hall (6 G) | .269 | | .296 | .538 | | .835 | | 6 | Hart (6 G) | .304 | | .385 | .435 | | .819 | | 7 | Hardy (5 G), Rivera (1 G) | .182 | | .250 | .273 | | .523 | | 8 | Sheets (2 G), Suppan (1 G), Villanueva (1 G) | .182 | | .250 | .273 | | .523 | | 9 | Kendall (5 G), Parra (1 G) | .474 | | .522 | .842 | | 1.364 | | | | | Total | .303 | | .360 | .488 | | .848 |
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Copyright © 2008 by John Dewan.
Permission to reprint or broadcast this information is granted only if used in conjunction with the following citation: "Used with permission from John Dewan's Stat of the Week™,
www.statoftheweek.com."