Tony La Russa, Genius

[G-Fafif]

Why bat a lifelong American League pitcher ninth when it's exactly what they're expecting you to do?

Tony La Russa, who's smarter than the phone book, slotted in Joel Piniero eighth and Adam Kennedy ninth.

I was at a game in 2005 in which Jack McKeon batted Dontrelle Willis seventh. The Marlins were beset by injuries and Willis is an honest-to-goodness hitter. Piniero? Two for 24 in his career. Kennedy is an actual player, even in a slump.

There's challenging orthodoxy and then there's just managing for the sake of managing and embarrassing a veteran, which is what La Russa did. Cardinals lost to the Nationals 12-1. Piniero's hitting wasn't any better than his pitching. Kennedy did collect two hits, though. If he goes on a hot streak, I take back my insistence that La Russa's genius tag is self-applied and overblown.

[Frayed Knot]

It's not the first time LaGenius has done this.
He was doing it for a while in the McGwire era based on the theory that he wanted Big Mac hitting 3rd in order to get him up in the 1st inning, but then also wanted better odds of having runners on base for him in the subsequent times around the lineup. So he figured that hitting the pitcher 8th would put an extra hitter between him and the big redhead.

If minor adjustments like that make a difference of more than a couple runs per year (in either direction) I'd be surprised. Then, once you add in the whole circus it creates about whether you're dissing the guy you slot 9th etc., I can't possibly think it would be worth all the trouble.