Quote:
Originally Posted by Living Lejuhnd
I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel here. I just want my leadoff guy to have a decent OBP and be somewhat of a threat on the bases. Marlon Byrd is just your average hitter. He doesn't threaten pitchers on the bases.
I've noticed it only happens to me as someone else mentioned when they're giving someone a rest. I just change the depth chart on those days and then have the manager recreate the lineup.
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Assuming we're talking about this year's Mets, I see two guys on the team who have double digit steals, which in and of itself doesn't even necessarily mean "pitcher threatening speed". You've got David Wright, who you're not going to hit leadoff (I mean, I could make a case for it but I would imagine that if the AI did this you'd be in here complaining about that) and Daniel Murphy, who would be my choice but who has his own issues (an Isolate Walks score of .033 for one). Byrd is by OPS+ the second best hitter on the team right now. I think I would personally try to bat him further down in the order (if I was going really sabermetric I'd bat Wright 2nd and Byrd cleanup) in order to take advantage of the power, but he a. does get on base more often than Murphy and b. there are just as many question marks with anyone else (like Lucas Duda, for instance).
In fact, if I was a Dusty Baker type I might even see Byrd's experience in the upper part of the order in Chicago and conclude that he has aptitude here.
Anyway, IRL being a threat on the basepaths is just one aspect of a leadoff hitter that conventional baseball likes. There's also:
- Finding a way to get on base however one can
- Getting into long at-bats with the pitcher so that the rest of the team can get an idea of what kind of stuff the man on the mound has on any given day
- Having enough speed to take extra bases on hits (which is not the same as getting a lot of steals)
- Being smart enough on the basepaths to not run his team into a lot of outs (that's one thing that Ichiro, while a classic burner, was great at)