The Flagrant Fan Blogs: Ian Kinsler

<div style="text-align: justify;">The Detroit Tigers had the third best pitching staff (overall) in the American League in 2012  and 2013. They had the second best offense in the American League in 2013 and the fourth  best (by OPS+) in 2012. That combination should land you close to 100 wins each season,  right? But the Tigers won 93 games in 2013 and 88 in 2012. Those totals are not terrible by  any means and got them to the post season. The missing ingredient has been defense.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The idea for this post came from a conversation between Neal Kendrick (@neal_kendrick) of  High Heat Stats and Jacob Smith (@JTD_Smith) that started with this tweet:</div><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">AL pitching leaders in fWAR for 2013 1. <strong><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/scherma01.shtml">Max Scherzer</a></strong>, DET 2. <strong><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/sanchan01.shtml">Anibal Sanchez</a></strong>, DET 3. <strong><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hernafe02.shtml">Felix Hernandez</a></strong>, SEA 4. <strong><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/v/verlaju01.shtml">Justin Verlander</a></strong>, DET<br />— Neal Kendrick (@neal_kendrick) <a href="https://twitter.com/neal_kendrick/statuses/427476966296408064">January 26,  2014</a></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">Think about that for a second. Their starting rotation featured three pitchers in the top four  in the American League. And <strong><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/fistedo01.shtml">Doug Fister</a></strong> was eighth! Their fifth starter, <strong><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/porceri01.shtml">Rick Porcello</a></strong>, is a  ground ball pitcher that needs fielders to field his batted balls.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">How did that staff ever lose? They lost, at least in part, to fielding.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the old school way of looking at things, the Tigers' fielding would have looked great. Hey,  they finished with the least amount of errors in the AL and the highest fielding percentage.  The trouble is, we now know that fielding percentage is nice if you are getting to a lot of  batted balls. But when you are not, you have a lack of defensive efficiency no matter how  good you are at catching and throwing the ball.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2012, the Tigers were next to last in the AL in defensive efficiency. In 2013, they were  tied for tenth out of fifteen teams. In 2012, the team as a whole had a -31 runs below  average according to Baseball Info Solutions. In 2013, that figure was worse and ended up  at -64 runs! That is between five and six wins of bad defense. While we are not dealing with  direct cause and effects here, it is a coincidence that adding those lost wins gets the team  pretty close to 100.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Who is to blame for this lack of focus on defense for the Tigers? It is easy to blame Jim  Leyland because he is gone now. But you have to give him some of the focus. Leyland  wanted as much offense in the lineup as he could possibly stack. He would bring outfielders  to play second base. You have to give part of the blame to the general manager and owner  who signed the biggest free agent regardless of what it meant for the offense.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Whatever the case may be, it looks like the organization is finally paying some attention to  defense. The <strong><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/kinslia01.shtml">Ian Kinsler</a></strong> for <strong><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/fieldpr01.shtml">Prince Fielder</a></strong> was one example of sacrificing a little offense to  get much better defense. The move also allows <strong><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cabremi01.shtml">Miguel Cabrera</a></strong> from third base, where he  was a disaster last season, to first base, a position he is much more capable of playing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If you look at just the infield (the outfield is okay), you have the following improvements  from last year again based on Baseball Info Solutions and a projection of what will happen in  2014:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">First base: Fielder to Cabera: -10 runs to -3.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Second base: <strong><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/i/infanom01.shtml">Omar Infante</a></strong> and others to Kinsler: -7 to 12</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Shortstop: <strong><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/peraljh01.shtml">Jhonny Peralta</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/i/iglesjo01.shtml">Jose Iglesias</a></strong>: 0 to 10</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Third base: Cabrera to <strong><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/casteni01.shtml">Nick Castellanos</a></strong>: -15 to -5.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">By my count, that is an improvement of 46 runs just in the infield. The infield improvement  does not only improve the infield but also the pitching. The biggest beneficiary will be Rick  Porcello and his 50+% ground balls. But it will also help the entire pitching staff.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The one question, of course, is how much offense the new infield will cost. Most feel that  Iglesias' offense was a fluke last year. We don't know yet how Castellanos will fare at the  Major League level. And you have to wonder how much Kinsler will dip leaving the friendly  conditions of Texas.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kinsler is a loss in offense compared to Fielder and Castellanos (naturally) will not equal  Cabrera offensively. But even if the Tigers lose twenty runs of offense, that is more than  doubled by the improvement of the defense.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">You have to wonder if Iglesias and Castellanos struggle early on offense what the Tigers will  do. Hopefully, the Tigers will stay with it. The team has come close to the promised land in  the last two seasons. Perhaps with some defense, they can make the last hurdle to get there. </div><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

The Tigers are getting defensive

The Detroit Tigers had the third best pitching staff (overall) in the American League in 2012 and 2013. They had the second best offense in...

+ Read more »

<div style="text-align: justify;">Everybody has their own idea of what a leadoff batter should be. Some think it should be the fast guy who can steal bases. Others like the speed / power combination. Some think that the leadoff batter should be the guy with the best on-base percentage. Some, writing in the past, focus on OPS. I tend to favor one or two of the latter. But if I had to commit myself, my preference would be the guy with the best on-base percentage who is not necessarily the elite hitter on the team.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The elite hitter usually bats third or fourth and the long-standing theory is that the leadoff guy gets on base and the big guys get him home. If they are also speed guys, that's great as long a they can be successful stealing 80% of the time. If they have some pop, that's also great. But the bottom line, for me, is that the first guy in the lineup can get on base at least 35% of the time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I compiled the league spit total for all of the Major Leagues for the past fifty years. And except for one golden age we will talk about in a minute, the collective of MLB leadoff batters have not been overly more successful of getting on base better than the collective of MLB batters as a whole. See the chart below:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK9ChIGdQBapHFnEGGmRtCmbaZNbwvSn0j7xzpJrlU9WTx9ZzNaN_H7ETJfQKFP9QA4FCmoekbcC-ul3_I0hzhWCYOnerr0UGrrwbXocHZy_-kqvwiP1p15WyuiYipRgJuKemInk125KA/s1600/obp.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK9ChIGdQBapHFnEGGmRtCmbaZNbwvSn0j7xzpJrlU9WTx9ZzNaN_H7ETJfQKFP9QA4FCmoekbcC-ul3_I0hzhWCYOnerr0UGrrwbXocHZy_-kqvwiP1p15WyuiYipRgJuKemInk125KA/s1600/obp.png" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The last four years is the first four-year stretch since the early to mid-1960s where the collective leadoff batters did not average a .330 on-base percentage. The downturn follows the overall downturn in offense over the last four years.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">But as you can also see, the current offense is similar to the offense of the mid-1980s but that was also the dawn of a golden age of leadoff batters that lasted until 1995 or so. That was the period of Rickey Henderson, Wade Boggs, Lenny Dykstra, Tim Raines, Brett Butler and even Bip Roberts. All those guys were terrific at getting on base despite whatever the league averages were and dragged the entire category up with them.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The average year for a leadoff batter resulted in an on-base percentage of about 10 points higher than all players as a whole. During those glory years, it often rose as high as 18 points. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Why is that significant? Some writers have suggested that a good leadoff batter can add as much as 15 runs to his team. Generally, leadoff batters have a thousand plate appearances league-wide more than the number three hitter on the team, or about 33 more plate appearances for each of the thirty teams. 15 runs is a little more than a win. A win is worth $5 to $6 million. A win could also make a difference in the standings.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">I have found in my research that unless the collective of leadoff batters have an on-base percentage of .330 or higher, they will not score more collective runs than the number three batters in the league. And that is for a thousand more plate appearances! So, yes, it does make a difference.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">As I stated, the last four years, the collective leadoff batters (by the way, I am using baseball-reference.com's league splits) have averaged less than a .330 on-base percentage. This past season (2013), only six leadoff batters--or one-fifth of all teams--had a leadoff guy whose on-base percentage was over .350: Shin-Soo Choo, Matt Carpenter, Norichika Aoki, Jacoby Ellsbury, Ian Kinsler and Jose Reyes.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Is it any surprise that two of those guys were two of the highest paid free agents this off season and another, Kinsler, was part of one of the biggest trades?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">As recently as 2009, there were fifteen leadoff batters (I have been using 400 min. plate appearances at the position) whose on-base percentage was over .350. So we went from half of all teams to a fifth. In 2008, there were fourteen. In 2007, there were fourteen. But there have been only six for the past three seasons.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Perhaps the leadoff batter has become a market inefficiency. Or perhaps the trend simply indicates a pitcher dominated era. There also might be a reflection of the acceptance of the strikeout as just another out somewhere in the mix too. Whatever the case, the leadoff batter is not what it used to be even as recently as 2009.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 256px;"> <colgroup><col span="3" style="width: 48pt;" width="64"></col> <col style="width: 48pt;" width="64"></col> </colgroup><tbody><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt; width: 48pt;" width="64"></td>  <td class="xl63" style="width: 48pt;" width="64">Lead off</td>  <td class="xl63" style="width: 48pt;" width="64"></td>  <td style="width: 48pt;" width="64"></td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">Year</td>  <td class="xl63">OBP</td>  <td class="xl63">LG OBP</td>  <td class="xl63">Difference</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1963</td>  <td class="xl64">0.318</td>  <td class="xl64">0.309</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.009</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1964</td>  <td class="xl64">0.317</td>  <td class="xl64">0.313</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.004</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1965</td>  <td class="xl64">0.318</td>  <td class="xl64">0.311</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.007</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1966</td>  <td class="xl64">0.324</td>  <td class="xl64">0.310</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.014</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1967</td>  <td class="xl64">0.307</td>  <td class="xl64">0.306</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.001</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1968</td>  <td class="xl64">0.314</td>  <td class="xl64">0.299</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.015</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1969</td>  <td class="xl64">0.331</td>  <td class="xl64">0.320</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.011</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1970</td>  <td class="xl64">0.335</td>  <td class="xl64">0.326</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.009</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1971</td>  <td class="xl64">0.325</td>  <td class="xl64">0.317</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.008</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1972</td>  <td class="xl64">0.315</td>  <td class="xl64">0.311</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.004</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1973</td>  <td class="xl64">0.336</td>  <td class="xl64">0.325</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.011</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1974</td>  <td class="xl64">0.336</td>  <td class="xl64">0.324</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.012</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1975</td>  <td class="xl64">0.340</td>  <td class="xl64">0.327</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.013</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1976</td>  <td class="xl64">0.328</td>  <td class="xl64">0.320</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.008</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1977</td>  <td class="xl64">0.339</td>  <td class="xl64">0.323</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.016</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1978</td>  <td class="xl64">0.323</td>  <td class="xl64">0.330</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">-0.007</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1979</td>  <td class="xl64">0.342</td>  <td class="xl64">0.326</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.016</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1980</td>  <td class="xl64">0.348</td>  <td class="xl64">0.320</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.028</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1981</td>  <td class="xl64">0.330</td>  <td class="xl64">0.324</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.006</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1982</td>  <td class="xl64">0.329</td>  <td class="xl64">0.325</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.004</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1983</td>  <td class="xl64">0.343</td>  <td class="xl64">0.323</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.020</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1984</td>  <td class="xl64">0.333</td>  <td class="xl64">0.323</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.010</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1985</td>  <td class="xl64">0.333</td>  <td class="xl64">0.326</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.007</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1986</td>  <td class="xl64">0.333</td>  <td class="xl64">0.331</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.002</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1987</td>  <td class="xl64">0.349</td>  <td class="xl64">0.331</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.018</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1988</td>  <td class="xl64">0.336</td>  <td class="xl64">0.318</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.018</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1989</td>  <td class="xl64">0.332</td>  <td class="xl64">0.320</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.012</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1990</td>  <td class="xl64">0.345</td>  <td class="xl64">0.325</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.020</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1991</td>  <td class="xl64">0.343</td>  <td class="xl64">0.323</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.020</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1992</td>  <td class="xl64">0.342</td>  <td class="xl64">0.322</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.020</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1993</td>  <td class="xl64">0.350</td>  <td class="xl64">0.332</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.018</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1994</td>  <td class="xl64">0.349</td>  <td class="xl64">0.339</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.010</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1995</td>  <td class="xl64">0.350</td>  <td class="xl64">0.338</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.012</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1996</td>  <td class="xl64">0.350</td>  <td class="xl64">0.340</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.010</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1997</td>  <td class="xl64">0.347</td>  <td class="xl64">0.337</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.010</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1998</td>  <td class="xl64">0.347</td>  <td class="xl64">0.335</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.012</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">1999</td>  <td class="xl64">0.349</td>  <td class="xl64">0.345</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.004</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">2000</td>  <td class="xl64">0.349</td>  <td class="xl64">0.345</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.004</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">2001</td>  <td class="xl64">0.331</td>  <td class="xl64">0.332</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">-0.001</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">2002</td>  <td class="xl64">0.332</td>  <td class="xl64">0.331</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.001</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">2003</td>  <td class="xl64">0.333</td>  <td class="xl64">0.333</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.000</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">2004</td>  <td class="xl64">0.343</td>  <td class="xl64">0.335</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.008</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">2005</td>  <td class="xl64">0.342</td>  <td class="xl64">0.330</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.012</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">2006</td>  <td class="xl64">0.343</td>  <td class="xl64">0.337</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.006</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">2007</td>  <td class="xl64">0.345</td>  <td class="xl64">0.336</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.009</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">2008</td>  <td class="xl64">0.345</td>  <td class="xl64">0.333</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.012</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">2009</td>  <td class="xl64">0.347</td>  <td class="xl64">0.333</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.014</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">2010</td>  <td class="xl64">0.329</td>  <td class="xl64">0.325</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.004</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">2011</td>  <td class="xl64">0.328</td>  <td class="xl64">0.321</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.007</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">2012</td>  <td class="xl64">0.324</td>  <td class="xl64">0.319</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.005</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">2013</td>  <td class="xl64">0.329</td>  <td class="xl64">0.318</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.011</td> </tr><tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">  <td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"></td>  <td class="xl64">0.335</td>  <td class="xl64">0.326</td>  <td align="right" class="xl65">0.010</td> </tr></tbody></table><br />

Leadoff batters, where are you?

Everybody has their own idea of what a leadoff batter should be. Some think it should be the fast guy who can steal bases. Others like the s...

+ Read more »