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Debuting in the Leadoff Position

Posted by Raphy on June 30, 2008

Tonight, Brett Gardner made his major league debut leading off for the Yankees.  I was a bit surprised because I thought that leadoff type players  usually start off their careers in the "double leadoff" spot. I did a PI search for all players making their debut batting leadoff in games with a DH. Here are the results. (There is one player (not in the link) who made his debut hitting leadoff in an interleague game with a DH. Bonus points if you knew that it was Mike Colangelo. )

60 previous times since 1973, including 5 in 2002. (Some teams, such as the '95 Royals and the '94 Mariners tried it twice.) However, Gardner is the first since 2002.

Related posts:

    Keeping Score: The Most Important Leadoff Skill? Not So Fast – NYTimes.com
    Most players debuting in the same game
    OBP from the leadoff spot / RBIs with two outs
    Readers Research: playing a new position after 1,000 games
    More on walking the leadoff hitter

This entry was posted on Monday, June 30th, 2008 at 6:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “Debuting in the Leadoff Position”

  1. mmayes Says:
    July 1st, 2008 at 9:37 pm

    In keeping with the "HR v. Triples" theme from a couple of posts ago, the debut player in the leadoff spot was more likely to triple in his first game than homer.

    Triples: Johnny Damon, Jeff Frye, Mickey Brantley (first AB), Daryl Boston (first AB)and Sergio Ferrer.

    Homers: George Wright and Dave Machemer (first AB).

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