IBC

We were just having a discussion in my office due to a WSJ article that came out recently, curious to get peoples' opinion here.

If a team "bats around" in an inning, how many batters need to have come to the plate at a minimum? 9 or 10? If the 9th batter in an inning makes the last out, did the team bat around in the inning? Or does the man who led off the inning need to come to bat in order for the team to have batted around?

I've always thought the guy that lead off the inning would have to bat again for it to be considered "batting around." I can see arguments for both sides though.

Funny I was just thinking the same thing last night. Agree with Nick here, I always thought it was 10 because you needed to "turn the lineup over" a.k.a "bat around" but It seems like a glass half empty/half full type of question.

I've always thought 10. Interesting tidbit by John Thorn in the article. Who can go against Latroy Hawkins?


http://www.wsj.com/articles/mlb-heres-a ... 1429571356

Everybody gets a chance to hit in one inning = batting around for me, and it doesn't matter if a player hits twice. Team Nine all the way.

I'm kind of in the middle. I think if the 9th batter of the inning is up, you have not yet batted around nor are you batting around. However, once the inning is over, if at least all 9 batters came to the plate, I think they have batted around in that inning.

I guess that's closer to team nine then.

Athletics wrote:I'm kind of in the middle. I think if the 9th batter of the inning is up, you have not yet batted around nor are you batting around. However, once the inning is over, if at least all 9 batters came to the plate, I think they have batted around in that inning.

I guess that's closer to team nine then.

Scenario: 9th batter is up and guy on first gets picked off, so 9th batter doesn't get an official at-bat. Batting around or not?

For the record, I've always thought of it as 10. Leadoff guy gets a second at-bat that inning.

I've always thought 9 guys.

Tigers wrote:

Athletics wrote:I'm kind of in the middle. I think if the 9th batter of the inning is up, you have not yet batted around nor are you batting around. However, once the inning is over, if at least all 9 batters came to the plate, I think they have batted around in that inning.

I guess that's closer to team nine then.

Scenario: 9th batter is up and guy on first gets picked off, so 9th batter doesn't get an official at-bat. Batting around or not?

For the record, I've always thought of it as 10. Leadoff guy gets a second at-bat that inning.

Then no, because he didn't register a PA.

Exactly. 9 guys must get a PA.

#team10 I've always thought batting around meant seeing someone bat twice in the same inning

I am leaning towards team10, but I can see the case for team9.

Pulled from that WSJ article

Proponents of the 10-batter theory argue that the circle isn’t complete unless the batter who started the inning (or another batter in that place) returns to the plate. They equate the nine-batter theory with running a marathon and stopping at the finish line rather than crossing it.

Niners, meanwhile, argue that a team has batted around when every player in the order has completed his turn at-bat—even if the ninth batter makes the final out.

Ideally I want the leadoff guy to return to the plate for a 2nd at bat. But if the leadoff guy gets to plate but doesn't record an official AB because a guy is thrown out in that same inning, I would still consider that batting around just because in that case he did have the chance to hit again in the inning. Definitely tricky in determining when the line is reached/crossed.

I've always felt 9, every batter gets an at bat. Mainly because it fills up an entire column in the scorebook, regardless of whether it spills into the next.

10. Batting around implies (to me) that you are lapping the batting order.

For those who say 10 batters, does that mean 10 plate appearances? If the 10th batter of the inning comes up but before the 1st pitch is thrown there's a pickoff at 1st base, did the team bat around?

Athletics wrote:For those who say 10 batters, does that mean 10 plate appearances? If the 10th batter of the inning comes up but before the 1st pitch is thrown there's a pickoff at 1st base, did the team bat around?

I would consider this ideal batted around scenario where you go a full 360 degrees without coming up short or going past.

I always thought of it as the leadoff guy standing at the plate again, regardless if it ends up registering as a PA or not... mainly because if you're keeping score, it really messes things up when a guy comes up twice in the same inning... sure he could not see a single pitch, but he could also see a pitch and then a guy get picked off, so your book still has pitches marked in his row in the wrong inning column.