Reason #452 Why I Know More About Baseball Than Many Individuals Employed By Actual MLB Teams

Washington Nationals manager Frank Robinson has been batting Alfonso Soriano leadoff for the entire season. And this isn't one of those crappy-players-who-don't-belong-at-leadoff scenarios ala Juan Pierre. Quite the opposite. He's too good to be batting there. Soriano is one of the very best power hitters in the league, and far and away the best on his own team. He currently has 35 home runs, more than twice the second best National.

What exactly is the crime of batting him leadoff, you ask? It comes down to basic baseball strategy. It's important for your on-base specialists (like a Kevin Youkilis) to bat in front of your home run hitters (like Ortiz and Manny)*. You want men on base when your smashers come to the plate. Plain and simple. You don't want their extra-base hits driving in empty bases.

"Must... make... team... worse!"

So who hits right in front of Soriano? As a leadoff batter in the National League, it will always be one of these three:

1) Nobody.
2) The pitcher.
3) Some pinch hitter off the bench.

In other words, the worst hitters on your team. So why, exactly, does Robinson bat him leadoff in the first place? Because he's fast. Because he steals bases. Because that's the type of player he "is." Just your basic, archaic, old-timey excuses for managers to not take two seconds to think about how stupid they can be. To make matters worse, you have the perfect guy to put in front of Soriano right on your own team: Nick Johnson. This ex-Yankee gets on-base at a .425 clip, one of the very best in all of baseball. Compare this to the combined on-base percentage of the Nationals' number nine hitters: .234.

Let's think about this.

.234

.425

.234

.425

It's painfully obvious how Nick Johnson should bat directly in front of Soriano. And yet every game, Soriano hits first, driving in only 37 runners that aren't himself, as opposed to 59 for Ortiz, despite the two's almost identical lines of batting average and slugging percentage. And every game Johnson comes out to bat 4th and draws walk after walk, with only second-rate hitters left to try and bring him home.

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*Boston manager Terry Francona has inexplicably moved away from this, now favoring Coco Crisp at leadoff, he of a weak .324 OBP. And guess what it gets us... a 1-3 record since Francona made the switch, including a loss to the freaking Royals.

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Spell check update: it's only suggestion for "Washin(g)ton" was "accenting," "leadoff" and "smashers" apparently aren't words, and it still hasn't learned "Ortiz."