B a t t i n g b y t h e N u m b e r s
This is the batting lineup of the ’93 Blue Jays, who beat the Philadelphia Phillies on Joe Carter’s famous game-winning home run in Game 6 of the World Series.
Carter was the classic cleanup hitter of that era — a pure slugger who didn’t walk much, or even hit for a very high average, but could hit the ball out of the yard.
He was joined in the batting order by other archetypal players for their lineup slot, from Rickey Henderson (widely regarded as the greatest leadoff man ever) and speedster Devon White . In the middle of the order were all-around hitters Robbie Alomar , John Olerud , and Paul Molitor .
For most of baseball history, there was a set pattern of roles in the batting lineup, passed down to managers through decades of experience. But those rules are changing as baseball evolves, especially with analytics increasingly guiding decisions. The 1993 Blue Jays might not look the same in 2024.
We rated each player relative to the league on a 0-5 scale in four major categories: batting average, power, walks, and speed. We grouped players by their lineup slot, and looked for the traits that each spot had in common — and how that has changed over time. Those trends allowed us to then predict where a batter with a particular set of skills might tend to bat, depending on the era (see methods for more).
