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Pitchers are going to pitch around Fielder with Braun behind him more often than they would pitch around Braun with Fielder behind him. I acknowledge Fielder is a better OBP hitter, but how certain are you that Braun can be as effective as he was last year without Prince behind him? Might it just be a coincidence that JJ hit so well last season when Prince was behind him, and only started to drop off when Braun was inserted between the two? I don't know the answers to those questions. I don't think anyone really does. But that brings us back the original point. If it ain't broke, why fix it? On the issue of protection, it is true that sabrmetric studies have shown no significant increase in offensive production between a protected hitter and a non-protected one. But they have confirmed that good hitters see more walks when weak hitters bat behind them than they do with stronger hitters "protecting" them. So in the respect that pitchers may choose to take the bat out of a player's hands because a less effective batter is on deck, it seems there is a case to be made for protection. Furthermore, most sabrmetric studies on the issue have not looked at the pitch-by-pitch analysis of the situation. Could it be that batters with better protection do actually see more fastballs? If so, wouldn't that also be a case for the theory of protection? Obviously Braun is a strong hitter, so it wouldn't be as though Prince still wouldn't be "protected". But I do believe Prince would be walked or pitched around more often in certain situations with Braun on deck than Braun would in those very same situations with Fielder on deck. I say this for the simple fact that we've seen this strategy employed numerous times by every team throughout baseball at one point or another, and there's no reason to believe it won't continue to be a strategy in the future. As I said, if pitchers had a choice, they would likely much rather attack a strikeout prone Braun in key game situations than they would Prince. And so such a lineup would, essentially, lessen the effect of Prince's bat than it would potentially be in a different batting order. Anyway, my preference for Braun batting in front of Fielder has more to do with Ryan's baserunning on Prince's hits rather than Prince's baserunning on Ryan's hits. I simply don't see how Braun gets that many more SB opportunities batting behind Fielder, which was Ned's stated reason for doing the switch in the first place.

The whole point of protection is so the pitcher WON'T walk the batter, not the other way around. Pitching around a hitter is essentially taking the bat out of his hands, which pitchers would tend to do to Prince more often if the strikeout-prone Braun is batting behind him. So while that might mean more RBI opportunities for Ryan, it also would not be the most effective use of Prince's bat. On the flip-side, pitchers wouldn't pitch around Braun nearly as often, as they would have to face a much more disciplined hitter in Prince with Ryan on base if they did. Admitedly, both players are studs, and it's a good problem to have. But if they had to choose, I would imagine pitchers would much rather attack Braun with runners on than they would Prince.

I'm still confused as to why it's so good to bat Kendall ninth. Doesn't that make it more likely that the pitcher would be pulled for a pinch hitter earlier in the ballgame? And wasn't the whole issue with the staff last year that they didn't go deep enough into ballgames? And isn't this offense pretty potent enough already, even without trying to squeak out an extra run here or there with this rather unconventional strategy? I guess I'm a little late to the discussion, but one thing I didn't see in the discussion about the Braun/Fielder flip (though I could've missed it): What makes everyone so certain that Braun will see a significant ammount of SB opportunities batting behind Prince? I mean, consider all the things that have to happen. Ryan must A) reach 1st base, B) have 2nd base open, C) be less than two outs (preferably), and D) be in the right situation (pitch count, game score, pitcher's ability to hold runners) to swipe a bag. And in the big scheme of things, how many more times is this situation REALLY going to present itself batting 4th instead of 3rd, and when it does, is it REALLY going to make a huge difference in the overall offensive production? Personally, I prefer Braun stay ahead of Fielder for two simple reasons: speed, and discipline. Rather than use his speed as a reason to bat behind Fielder, wouldn't it make just as much sense to want his speed on the basepaths ahead of Fielder for all those non-HR hits Prince stands to collect? Or conversely, would you really rather have Prince running the bases from 1st to 3rd or 2nd to Home on a Braun single, or perhaps 1st to Home on a Braun double, rather than the other way around? And in terms of discipline, I would imagine the bat would be taken out of Fielder's hands with Braun hitting behind him more than it would be taken out of Braun's hands the other way around. I just don't see the overall benefits for either of these two strategies. I believe that whatever advantage there would be for getting more runs with Kendall batting 9th or getting Braun more steals by batting him 4th are small and negligible over the course of an entire 162 game season. And more importantly, both moves potentially take away from other, more delicate parts of the overall team.

Prince James, it depends on if the internet service provider you'll be going through blocks certain websites, particularly the mlb.tv site. If that is the case, it's helpful to learn about how to use proxy servers. Proxy servers essentially use a different IP address to relay information to your computer. I've used this to access American sites while in China. Because mlb.tv uses your IP address - and not your zip code or credit card information - to determine if games are blacked out, you could also be able to watch Brewer games while in the Milwaukee area - or anywhere else in the world. I've actually done this the past two years.

MLB.tv actually doesn't use your zip code in determining if a game is blacked out or not. It uses your IP address. Which is why God made proxy servers.