Leading off the game in 2008
Posted by Andy on January 4, 2009
Here are the splits for the leadoff hitter by team in 2008. This data is available here.
G PA H 2B 3B HR BB SO HBP ROE BA OBP SLG OPS SEA 162 162 56 7 2 2 5 16 1 3 0.359 0.383 0.468 0.851 MIL 162 162 37 8 1 5 22 37 2 3 0.268 0.377 0.449 0.826 NYM 162 162 54 9 4 4 6 26 0 2 0.346 0.370 0.532 0.902 STL 162 162 47 8 0 1 12 18 1 3 0.315 0.370 0.389 0.760 CLE 162 162 41 10 1 8 17 33 0 1 0.283 0.358 0.531 0.889 LAD 162 162 46 8 0 4 11 26 1 0 0.307 0.358 0.440 0.798 PIT 162 162 42 11 0 2 12 15 4 1 0.288 0.358 0.404 0.762 FLA 161 161 47 11 2 10 7 30 3 2 0.311 0.354 0.609 0.963 SFG 162 162 40 2 3 4 17 30 0 1 0.276 0.352 0.414 0.766 NYY 162 162 35 7 1 4 20 24 2 1 0.250 0.352 0.400 0.752 ARI 162 162 43 7 1 4 13 30 0 0 0.289 0.346 0.430 0.775 CHW 163 163 42 6 0 2 14 17 0 0 0.282 0.344 0.362 0.706 CIN 162 162 44 10 1 4 10 26 1 1 0.291 0.340 0.450 0.790 BOS 162 162 43 8 1 3 11 27 1 2 0.287 0.340 0.413 0.753 BAL 161 161 42 13 0 1 11 24 0 2 0.280 0.329 0.387 0.716 SDP 162 162 46 12 3 7 7 31 0 2 0.297 0.327 0.548 0.876 COL 162 162 37 4 1 0 16 24 0 3 0.253 0.327 0.295 0.622 LAA 162 162 37 4 0 3 15 19 0 4 0.252 0.321 0.340 0.661 HOU 161 161 43 7 0 3 8 27 0 2 0.281 0.317 0.386 0.702 WSN 161 161 43 9 1 1 7 28 1 0 0.281 0.317 0.373 0.689 TBR 162 162 39 2 4 3 12 30 0 3 0.260 0.315 0.387 0.701 ATL 162 162 34 7 1 4 15 22 1 1 0.233 0.309 0.377 0.685 KCR 162 162 40 4 2 1 9 26 1 2 0.263 0.309 0.336 0.644 MIN 163 163 33 5 1 2 16 27 0 2 0.224 0.301 0.313 0.614 CHC 161 161 40 8 0 5 7 35 1 1 0.261 0.298 0.412 0.710 TOR 162 162 32 4 3 2 12 25 4 3 0.219 0.296 0.329 0.625 PHI 162 162 39 6 1 2 6 19 2 1 0.253 0.290 0.344 0.634 DET 162 162 30 6 1 5 15 29 0 0 0.204 0.278 0.361 0.638 TEX 162 162 36 10 3 5 7 20 1 4 0.234 0.272 0.435 0.707 OAK 161 161 33 5 1 2 7 25 2 1 0.217 0.261 0.303 0.564
I looked at this data because I was curious to see if the leadoff hitter getting on base correlated much at all with team wins. The answer is that it doesn't correlate at all. There are playoff teams all over the list, including the Brewers and Dodgers near the top of the list and the Phillies and the Cubs near the bottom of the list. The 100-win Angels are middle-of-the-pack. The team that got its leadoff hitter on most was the Mariners, and they were one of the worst teams in the majors.
January 4th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
I wonder if there is more correlation with team success if you look at all plate appearances by leadoff hitters (instead of solely the 1st PA of the game), or over a few more years. One would think you'd find something.
It being a lazy Sunday afternoon, I calculated the correlation between the OPS in your table above and the team wins. It comes to -0.09. So, yes, there is essentially no correlation between the two numbers.