NFBC Message Boards

Leading off the lineup and the season, a few thoughts....



At the beginning of the season, "experts" were worried about Carlos Gonzalez walk rate. I haven't heard it mentioned much since.



At the beginning of the season, CarGo led off, now he is third in the league in RBI.



At the beginning of the season, Judio Borbon was thought to be a Judy and a good leadoff hitter for the power laden Rangers. Now, he is hardly considered lineup worthy, let alone leadoff man. With just 10 stolen bases, he has gone from Judio to Faabio.



At the beginning of the season Jose Bautista was considered a positional help with 3b/of eligibility and at bats leading off. There must something to leading off a power hitter at the beginning of the year. With his 37 homers, like CarGo he is third in his league in RBI.

Pssst, LaRussa leads Pujols off next year.



In the beginning of the season, Martin Prado was thought to be a handy guy to have on the roster with a lot of position eligibility. Like Bautista, he has exceeded all expectations.



In the beginning of the season, Jason Bartlett was thought to be one of the premier shortstops. His leadoff job has turned into mostly batting ninth two of three days. Like his namesake, Jason only hits on Friday the 13th.



In the beginning of the season, the Diamondbacks had a leadoff hitter with power and average speed. Uh, it didn't work out so well for them. Conor Jackson has had another injury year and ended up being shipped to Oakland.

Thankfully, there are no desert bugs in the Bay Area.



In the beginning of the season, it was thought by most that Austin Jackson would be overwhelmed in the leadoff spot for a Major League team.

He has surprised n retaining that spot all year and becoming a Judy in the process.



At last check, only a third of leadoff hitters at the beginning of the year were still doing the jobs lately. A tough gig.

Kudo's to Andres Torres. He has taken the job and literally ran with it.



Joe Maddon has made the leadoff hitter an on base guy and not a speed guy.



Poor Tony LaRussa knows that his leadoff looks very similar to his ninth hitter. Yet, the Cards get it done anyway.



Next time, reading an article about closers being ever changing, it is much the same for leadoff hitters.

Originally posted by DOUGHBOYS:





Next time, reading an article about closers being ever changing, it is much the same for leadoff hitters. Maybe more so.....



In the past 50 years, a player has batted leadoff 145 times or more during a season for his team 181 times. Seems like that might be a lot, but it averages out to just over 3.5 guys per year staying in the leadoff spot all year.



Other stuff......



Over the past 50 years, 474 players have started 100 games or more in the leadoff spot over the course of their entire career. Elvis Andrus became that 474th player last night.



The most games over this time period of course is Ricky Henderson. He started 2875 games in the one hole. Next is Pete Rose at 2300. Johnny Damon and Ichiro Suzuki are 8th and 9th on the list with 1528 and 1516 games started respectively.

Good stuff, Russ.



It is amazing how spots in the lineup change. Bautista and Gonzalez looked a tad out of kilter leading off the year, but whooda thunk that both would be vying for RBI titles.



All time, some of my favorite leadoff guys:



Lou Brock

Felipe Alou

Willie Mays (All Star games)

Rickey Henderson

Brian Downing

Paul Molitor



In real baseball, time has passed the Judy's by. Small ball can be played from any area of the lineup. For every Furcal, there's a Kemp. For every Pierre, there's a Rios. 2-Hole hitters mostly go up hacking, so taking a pitch or moving a runner over has fallen out of style.



Maddon has it right in Tampa Bay, but using players like Jaso or Johnson speaks to his lack of personnel for the leadoff spot when speed isn't a priority.

A cajones tester for him would be to put Carlos Pena in the leadoff spot. Seems ludicrous with missed rbi ops, but it is the AL and the Rays do have good hitters down to the bottom of their lineup. The RBI ops could be made up in putting a quick score on the board and having a good obp guy there. Just my opinion.