Our coach is leading off with the player in our team who has the highest era 0.389, highest slugging 0.611, obp .442 and second highest rbi’s 6 after 37 ab’s. I am thinking his bat would be better used at 3, 4 or 5 slot.
Any opinions would be greatly valued.
The leadoff batter has one essential task, and that is to get on base any way he knows how—whether it be via a hit or a walk or getting hit by a pitch, to name three possibilities. The quoted statistics don’t mean much in this instance; he just needs to get on base. It has been demonstrated time and again that the leadoff man who gets on will come in to score if the batters behind him do their jobs. So if the coach plans to use this particular hitter in the leadoff position, he should instruct him to do just that—get on base any way he can. 8)