Is OPS really a great indicator of how valuable a lead off hitter is? How important is slugging PCT when your job is to just get on base and slap hits?

 

A majority of his career has been batting lead off. He has done that to a tune of a .299 avg .354 OBP and .809 OPS (for Craig). I would say thats a pretty good line.

Darin Erstad has not batted leadoff for a majority of his career, first of all. He has 2251 at bats as a leadoff hitter, and 5330 at bats overall. That is 42%.

 

Secondly, you're looking at a very biased stat line there, because of Erstad's one good season. Erstad saw 746 plate appearances and 675 at bats in the leadoff spot during the 2000 season. In Erstad's best season, he hit leadoff almost every time. From 2004 to 2006, much more recent data, he has only been in the #1 slot for 170 at bats. He has put up a .259 average, .315 OBP, and .709 OPS in that slot.

 

And I would add that while OPS is not a great indicator of the quality of a leadoff hitter, there are ways to evaluate them. First, you can look at OBP, which for Erstad is simply not his strength, because he doesn't take a walk and eveyrone knows it. But beyond that, if a guy is leading off and doesn't have a high OPS, one thing he can do to help is steal a lot of bases, because it makes it so that he's in scoring position when he is on base and distracts the pitcher. Unfortunately, Erstad doesn't do that very well either. He'll get a handful, but certainly not enough to even qualify as a good leadoff guy.

Edited April 25, 200718 yr by Balta1701

When I've seen either play, they've both looked like crap.