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On the other hand, I was watching the Astros-Angels game last night and the Astros, with what it would be hard to argue is a weak overall offense, had Niko Goodrum batting third. As a Detroit Tigers fan, I like Goodrum, but his career big league slash line is .229/.303/.395, so I'm pretty sure if we saw the OOTP AI do something like this we would think that was evidence of a major flaw in the game.
And former Astros manager A.J. Hinch has hit Jeimer Candelario in the cleanup slot in the first two games for the Detroit Tigers this season. Now Jeimer is a fine hitter, and in my mind (again, as a Tiger fan) an underrated player, but he isn't what you would call a prototypical cleanup hitter. The Tigers recently acquired Austin Meadows, who I think most of us would probably think is a more likely cleanup hitter in this lineup.
Not suggesting that these concerns are unfounded and these are just a few isolated real-life examples, but I am suggesting that odd lineup choices aren't exclusive to the OOTP AI but also happen, likely more often than we notice, in MLB as well.
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