Manager John Farrell will need to decide who should leadoff for the Sox this year. (WEEI)
With Jacob Ellsbury now playing center field for the New York Yankees, the Red Sox need to make a decision on who is going to lead things off for the defending World Champions. According to multiple websites and the Red Sox Twitter page, manager John Farrell has narrowed down the field of leadoff men to Shane Victorino and Daniel Nava.
Many things need to be looked at when selecting a leadoff hitter. While the most obvious statistic to look at is on base percentage, it is not the only factor which needs to be considered.
When looking at the Red Sox players not named Jacoby Ellsbury who batted first in last year's lineup, you will only find three players who accumulated at least 10 at bats. Dustin Pedroia led all other players with his 49 at bats. Pedroia had a batting average of .327, an OBP of .365 and an OPS of .835. Daniel Nava had 38 at bats and an OBP of .317. Shane Victorino had 36 at bats and an OBP of .256.
Since batting leadoff may mean that you only leadoff an inning once in the game, I decided to look at current players' statistics when leading off an inning. The website I used to find my data lets you expand this data to the most reason 3 year time frame. Here is what I found:
When looking at the Red Sox players not named Jacoby Ellsbury who batted first in last year's lineup, you will only find three players who accumulated at least 10 at bats. Dustin Pedroia led all other players with his 49 at bats. Pedroia had a batting average of .327, an OBP of .365 and an OPS of .835. Daniel Nava had 38 at bats and an OBP of .317. Shane Victorino had 36 at bats and an OBP of .256.
Since batting leadoff may mean that you only leadoff an inning once in the game, I decided to look at current players' statistics when leading off an inning. The website I used to find my data lets you expand this data to the most reason 3 year time frame. Here is what I found:
BATTING STATISTICS WHEN LEADING OFF AN INNING (2011-2013)
The final thing I looked at was the number of pitches the players took per at bat last season. Mike Napoli led not only the Red Sox in this category, but his 4.59 pitches per at bat also led the MLB. Nava and Pedroia were also in the top 20 with averages of 4.11 and 4.05 respectfully. Victorino averaged 3.83 pitches per at bat. Will Middlebrooks didn't have enough plate appearances last season to be ranked in the MLB, but his 4.11 average over 374 at bats is pretty convincing. If you add in his stats from 2012 he has a 4.01 average over 660 plate appearances.
Although none of the current players bring the same skill set that Ellsbury did, they all have potential to being suitable replacements this season.
Although none of the current players bring the same skill set that Ellsbury did, they all have potential to being suitable replacements this season.
RSS Feed
