The Importance of a Good Bench

A good bench is important to team success in baseball, but you wouldn't know it from the bench players teams use.

Consider the Baltimore Orioles' bench:

Jay Gibbons 208 AB -- .212/.265/.351
Paul Bako 111 AB -- .207/.279/.261
Chris Gomez 111 AB -- .297/.339/.378
Freddie Bynum 47 AB -- .277/.320/.532
Alberto Castillo 31 AB -- .161/.229/.323
Brandon Fahey 26 AB -- .192/.222/.192

TOTAL 534 AB.

534 at bats. That's far more than the team leader in at bats (Nick Markakis with 347). The scrubs on the Orioles' bench have 1.5 times as many at bats as any starting position player. This isn't an usually high total - bench players get a lot of playing time and it's mostly wasted.

The Detroit Tigers went from 829 runs scored in 1984 to 729 runs scored in 1985. Bill James calculated that the 100-run dropoff was mainly caused by the team's switch from a good-hitting bench to a bad-hitting bench.

There are players stuck at AAA who could be useful off the bench in the major leagues. They'd be a big improvement on the no-hit-wonders that pollute big league rosters now.