Quote:lol lineup protection, that's a myth.

So youre telling me the only thing that separates Oakland from being the worst team in baseball is Cespedes? Did you even read the article I posted.

Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Gray and Kazmir pitched like crap. Donaldson, Moss, Norris, and Crisp hit like crap. Doolittle missed some time and the rest of the bullpen struggled. Lowrie got hurt. Jaso got hurt. Beane never fixed that blackhole at 2B.

Cespedes was a good hitter, but they had more than enough bats to make up for it.

I read your article and I've read several other with similar themes, too. Please stop using strawman points. I've already said that "there were obviously more factors that contributed to the Athletic's being worse.".

Lineup protection is a myth? Huh? If you don't realize that the way bullpens and situational pitching is managed is based on lineup strengths, then we really can't discuss this any further.

I am as much as a stats guy as anybody, but you can't simply dimiss those things. You also can't dimiss the psychological aspects involved, like clubhouse chemistry/dynamics. Taking the cleanup hitter out of the best offense in baseball could put a psychological burden on the other players to step up, which could have inverse effects and be tied to the slumping. Is that prove-able by data? No, but it's definitely a factor to consider.

---