The 2023 Topps Baseball Japan edition was released in mid-December 2023. For me, it’s an interesting set and normally, I buy some packs of Topps Baseball Japan edition each year. A few weeks ago, I saw some hobby packs of the 2023 Topps Baseball Japan edition available in a store. I decided to buy this product to see if I could find something cool.
After opening the first hobby pack, I found a Freddie Freeman base card. While seeing this card, I began to think about a question.
Freddie Freeman won the 2020 NL MVP award and is surely a great player. He has played well after signing with the Dodgers. In the off-season, the Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani to a 10-year deal. In the 2023 season, Mookie Betts was the leadoff hitter in the lineup and Freeman batted 2nd. With Ohtani in the lineup, the Dodgers certainly have an even better lineup. Ohtani and Freeman are 2 dangerous hitters in the majors. However, there’s an interesting question. Who’s batting second?
To understand a little bit, I chose to check on the great baseball reference website.
Firstly, let’s take a look at these 2 players’ stats when they bat second. Freeman began his career in 2010. Earlier in his career, he didn’t have too many opportunities to bat second. He only had 1 plate appearance at batting second in 2010 and in 2013. And he had 4 plate appearances at batting second in 2011. Very interestingly, he didn’t collect a hit while batting second in 2010, 2011 and 2013. However, he collected 39 hits while batting second in 2020. Last season, Freeman played 161 games and had 730 plate appearances (all batted second). He slashed .331/.410/.567 with 29 home runs and 102 RBI while batting second in 2023. By far in his career, his OPS is over .900 while batting second.
Ohtani by far had 1000+ plate appearances at batting second in his career and his OPS is over 1.000. In particular, last season, he slashed .337/.468/.738 with 26 home runs and 49 RBI while batting second. His OPS was over .900 in 2021 and 2022 when he batted second.
In addition, let’s look at their performance when they bat third. Batting third isn’t new to Freeman. So far in his career, he has 5000+ plate appearances at batting third. Freeman hits .300/.389/.516 with 202 home runs and 701 RBI while batting third. However, the last time he batted third was in 2022. In 2022, Freeman slashed .355/.433/.547 with 11 home runs and 50 RBI when he batted third.
Batting third isn’t new to Ohtani, either. He now has 1000+ plate appearances at batting third, hitting .271/.342/.514 with 58 home runs and 168 RBI. He crushed 17 home runs in 2023 while batting third. Nonetheless, when Ohtani bats third, his OPS is below .900 by far in his career.
The spring training games just began. Dave Roberts and the Dodgers front office might still have time to decide which player to bat second or third. When we look at these 2 players’ stats, it’s certainly great for the Dodgers to have Freeman in the lineup because he can just do a great job whether he’s batting second or batting third. For Ohtani, it seems that he did contribute more when he’s the second hitter in the lineup. Of course, there are some factors behind the numbers, for example, the hitter behind Ohtani or Freeman in the lineup could be a factor. And that’s another thing that the Dodgers will have to think about.
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