How so? For instance: when the Dodgers have Eithier in the lineup ahead of Manny Ramirez, his number are much better than when he is lower in the lineup. Also, you often hear managers say, "Well we were forced to pitch to player X with player Y on deck". Clearly there is an effort to pitch to a weaker hitter with an all-star on deck, right? EDIT: Cameron may have a better OBP than Gamel this year, but I don't think that's fair to Gamel since he has a very small sample of major league PAs. Cameron's lifetime OBP is .341, which is much lower than the .369 he's put up so far this year. Also, for reference Gamel is seeing 4.4 pitches/plate appearance this year compared to Cameron's 4.0 P/PA.