Phillies using lineup with pitcher batting eighth, could use in regular season

The Phillies continue to try out various lineups in spring training, the latest one featuring the pitcher batting eighth.

With a new, analytically-inclined manager and front office leading the Phillies, they are finally adopting new trends in the game. Batted ball data influences their outfield shifts, and spin rates are influencing how pitchers develop their arsenal.

Another new trend, inspired by Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon, is a complete re-invention of how baseball lineups are crafted. For quite a while, lineups had a very specific pattern: put the fastest guys first, follow them up with the power hitters, then end the lineup with your weakest hitters, with your pitcher at the end.

Maddon turned that notion on its head over the last few years; it’s part of the reason they won the World Series. Now, Gabe Kapler and the Phils are taking a page out of their book. Saturday’s lineup against the Rays is one of the more intriguing ones we’ve seen this spring:

The thing that stands out most about this lineup is pitcher Vince Velasquez batting eighth instead of ninth. Tony La Russa’s Cardinals were one of the first teams to use this strategy consistently and Maddon employed it as well.

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Maddon explained to Jayson Stark, formerly of ESPN, that having your No. 9 hitter as a position player gives the team another leadoff hitter at the end of the order. When a No. 8 hitters come up with two outs, especially with a runner on base, pretty much every team will walk them to bring up the pitcher.

In La Russa and Maddon’s strategy, the pitcher comes up in the eighth spot.

He will still record an out nine times out of ten and often ending an inning. Instead of going back to the top of the lineup, the No. 9 hitter, often a high-on-base-percentage player, comes to bat to lead off the next inning. In this situation, you could have someone on base, without any outs, for your top of the order.

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Former manager Pete Mackanin tried this strategy to jump-start the team’s offense back in April of 2016. That was a hard task considering Ryan Howard, David Lough, and Peter Bourjous were all in the lineup at the time. It was Mackanin just trying to get something started, but it was one of the few times he used one of the newer ideas in baseball.

Now, the Phillies have a much better lineup with more suitable players for this strategy. Ahead of the pitcher is Jorge Alfaro, who can clear the basepaths with his power before the pitcher comes up. After the pitcher is J.P. Crawford, who had a career .367 OBP in the minors and .356 OBP in 23 games in the majors last year.

Then, the potent top of the order of Cesar Hernandez, Carlos Santana, Odubel Herrera, and Rhys Hoskins can bring Crawford home.

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Even if the Opening Day lineup has the pitcher batting eighth, this one still has plenty to like about it.