Should
your leadoff hitter be:
Player A with 5 stolen bases
Player B with 57 stolen bases
Player A with a .379 on-base percentage
Player B with a .336 on-base percentage
Old-school philosophy has
always been to put the player with speed at the top of the order.
However, the sabermetric community has made a case for years that
on-base percentage is more important than speed.
Some teams are beginning
to come around. Here's how it worked for the Red Sox last year. The
on-base guy, Player A, is Kevin Youkilis, the Greek God of Walks.
The speedy guy, Player B, is Coco Crisp. The two of them shared
leadoff duties for the Red Sox last year. How did the Red Sox fare?
|
Red Sox Record in 2006 |
|
Crisp batting leadoff |
24
wins, 31 losses |
|
Youkilis batting leadoff |
55
wins, 40 losses |
The evidence is not
conclusive of course, but score one for the numbers guys.
