Friday, March 27, 2009

Jeter Batting Lead Off

The Yankees have been toying with a lineup that places Derek Jeter as the leadoff hitter, and Johnny Damon as the number two hitter. Jeter last batted lead off regularly in the 2005 season when Tony Womack did not pan out. It was the season before we got Damon. That season was a strange one for Jeter who didn't seem comfortable as a lead off hitter but batted .309 with 19 homeruns, 70 RBI's and 14 stolen bases. Personally, I think its a great move. Jeter has a career .387 OBP, which would look good at the top of the lineup. He gets base hits, and though he isn't the stolen base threat he once was, he can still swipe a few bags on that arthritic left knee. In yesterday's game, Jeter had a pair of hits including a double, but everyone got a pair of hits yesterday so its not a good gauge. We'll have to see how it works out through the rest of spring training and into the season. All I know is that we are inching closer to opening day, and it could not come soon enough. So do you like Jeter as leadoff, or do you think they should stick with Damon? What about Gardner or anyone else?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Check this out:
http://tinyurl.com/cfog47

This is Baseball Musing's Lineup Analysis Tool. The results are pretty surprising and unorthodox. This is purely quantitative, based on OBA and SLG.

If Jeter bats first, the Yanks are projected to do only slightly a little better in terms of projected runs/game with Jeter batting first; compare 5.657 runs to the 5.643 r/g with Damon hitting leadoff.

SA Yankee fan said...

I think it's a good move, he has a better career OBP then Damon and grounds into more DP's plus Damon has more power.

At the end of the day, any scenario that gets Jeter more at bats is a good one. 3000 hits is not that far away.

Roberto E. Alejandro said...

I wonder the extent to which the DP figure has been overstated. Damon takes about 1/4 of all his at-bats with no one on base since he leads off the game, that's going to affect his ability to hit into DPs. How do they compare in terms of hitting ground ball outs?

Bronx Baseball Daily said...

Jeter does consistently have a higher OBP than Damon. It seems like the right move. Damon has a decent amount of pop too.

She-Fan said...

I like the move and it seems to be working well so far. The bad news is Burnett got lit up today.

SA Yankee fan said...

Jeter has a higher percentage of GIDP as well as actually having hit into more. Johnny has one of the lowest GIDP percentages in the league (I think RAB had something on it a while back, the statistic is based on the number of opportunities to GIDP vs. the number of times you actually have).