As was reported earlier on this blog,  there is some support out there for the general concept of batting your pitcher 8th. In that case, they looked at Tony LaRussa's decision to do so last year.

Now, Dan Fox over at Baseball Prospectus, has some more specific info on the Brewers situation, and it centers around Kendall's rather unique (ahem) abilities:

What makes it work in this case is that Kendall's combination of an adequate OBP and a woeful slugging percentage is not that different from the typical ninth spot hitter in the order. This means that when batting eighth he won't be driving in many of the four-through-seventh place hitters who reach base, but when hitting ninth he gets on base enough to allow Fielder and Braun opportunities to drive him in, resulting in a net offensive gain. It appears the break-even for this strategy as far as the Brewers go is somewhere around Kendall delivering a .360 SLG. That is, if Kendall's slugging percentage were .360 or higher (while delivering the same OBP (of .324) ), it would essentially be a wash as to whether to bat him eighth or ninth. 

So when Yost talks about the "numbers" on this issue, he's not just blowing smoke. What remains to be seen is if he's going to stick to this or not after the first time the pitcher bats with two outs and runners in scoring position and the team goes on to lose. One thing going against Yost here is that the benefits of this move (Kendall being on more in front of the top of the order hitters) are probably going to be less readily apparent than the negative aspects of having the pitcher come up a spot earlier. There is going to be a lot of gnashing of teeth by the fans and possibly the media. Does Yost have the stones to stick with his plan, even in the midst of public criticism?

Finally, do you remember part of the original plan here was that Braun and Fielder (or Fielder and Braun) would move up a spot each and bat second and third? What ever happened to that?

Thanks to Badger80 for digging this up over at BP.