Best Leadoff Men

[superflymacdaddyjuice]

lucky is absolutely right (as per usual) do not under estimate the importance of having a * guy bat lead-off. your second hitter's batting average will thank you for it.

[markp65]

Lucky & Mac, your point is very well taken. Certainly, it's best to have a * guy batting leadoff or, for that matter, in any place in the batting order, for its effect on the defense. Agreed. It's optimal but it's not a prerequisite by any means, ESPECIALLY if you're playing in a park that drastically favors RHB.

In any given year there just aren't that many players who (a) bat RH (b) carry a .400+ OBP vs RHP and (c) lack an extraordinarily high slugging percentage (which would make them a poor choice to bat leadoff - guys like Manny, D Lee, A Rod...). I'm thinking of guys like Dustan Mohr from the 2005 deck, Todd Pratt from years past. Youkilis is such a player in the 2006 deck. If you were playing in 2005 SBC or 2006 Minute Maid (as examples) would you not bat a Pratt-Mohr-Youkilis type in the leadoff position just because he lacks the *?

[MARCPELLETIER]

Well, in low hitting teams, I would probably push to have Youkilis in the 2nd slot, for his on-base and his low gbA numbers (although his weak card is a turn-off for this slot). 2005's Mohr was a perfect case for the 2nd slot in all non-Coors team.

But let's say, for the sake of the discussion, that your 2nd-3rd-4th-5th slot are already decided. You are hesitating between Youkilis and some other player that has a stealing star for the first slot (with the other going lower in the line-up). A runner with a star, if he's on first base, will increase the batting average of the second hitter by about 3 chances, the third hitter by about 2 chances, and the fourth hitter by about 1.5 chances (in fact, all together, it's 6 chances), when leading off an inning. You will also avoid a similar number of double-plays (at least, in leagues as ours that insist so much on good middle infield). Add to this that these increases of on-base happen in front of your best hitters, so it adds more to your team than regular on-base. Finally, players with a stealing star are usually faster as well, and this can be an appreciable advantage if your fourth hitter has a lot of doubles or if your fifth hitter has a lot of singles.

As you suggested, the advantages of the are not completely lost if you play the player with a stealing star lower in the line-up, but the chances of benefiting from this star will be definitively smaller, given the lower chances of leading-off an inning for a player in a lower slot in the line-up.

So, my own rule of thumb is that I am willing to have a player with a stealing star and four-five lower chances of on-base over Youkilis (for a lefty hitter, I would probably go as low as 8 under, given that rhp usually give more on-base to lh)---but I could go as low as 8 to 10 under if the player has only single or walks on his card.

[Evil Brew]

i can deal with non-asterik guy leading off, but not when it's also combined with no speed, i'd rather have a guy like mora, to use a 3b, who can really take advantage of an open double, or single if he's on second, to make a high percantage play at the plate.

that said, an automatic lead at the top of the line up is a good thing to have.