Who should bat leadoff for the Red Sox in '09?

by Randy Booth on Feb 19, 2009 1:55 PM EST in News

There has been a lot of discussion in the last few days regarding who should bat leadoff for the Red Sox this year. Time to settle the debate:

Who should bat leadoff: J.D. Drew or Jacoby Ellsbury? (I'm removing Dustin Pedroia from this because he is the MVP, dammit).

Poll

Who should bat leadoff for the Red Sox in '09?

Jacoby Ellsbury

323 votes

J.D. Drew

63 votes

386 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 19 comments | 0 recs |

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Comments

It all depends

Ideally, Ellsbury hits .300+ the entire year as our leadoff guy. However, unless he is impressive this spring, I’d start him at the bottom of the order, and then promote him to leadoff when he learns to be more patient.

by Schulz on Feb 19, 2009 3:00 PM EST reply actions

Agreed

If Ellsbury can be effective, there’s no reason not to have him set the table. However, I’m anticipating that he’s more of a #7 hitter. I’d like to see him get on base and force opposing pitchers to throw fastballs to Lowrie.

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by SoxDevil on Feb 19, 2009 3:41 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs

Ellsbury

must show he can do it in spring training or I’d automatically turn to Drew.

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by sox-inda-south on Feb 19, 2009 4:06 PM EST reply actions

DREW!!!

My dear lord. A guy with a .392 OBP and a .408 OBP last season (1st on the team) should get as many PAs as possible, even tossing issues of importance of order aside. 5th at the lowest, but Lowell or Bay can hit 5th. All right, I’ll just go the full nine:

Drew-DP-Papi-Youks-Bay-Lowell-Ells (don’t mind this idea from SD at all)-Lowrie-Corpse/Bard

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by Allen Chace on Feb 19, 2009 4:11 PM EST reply actions

That .392 is his career mark, sorry.

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by Allen Chace on Feb 19, 2009 4:12 PM EST up reply actions

Agreed

I don’t think that will happen, but this is the best line-up for this roster. Also, am I the only one who thinks that Bay might bat cleanup next season?

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by MerryGoByeBye on Feb 19, 2009 4:48 PM EST up reply actions

Nope

People forget that he hit 30 hrs and 100 RBI’s last year.

by drabidea on Feb 19, 2009 4:53 PM EST up reply actions

Yeah

And I’m not so sure that Youk can keep his power numbers up like they were last season. Bay is more a sure thing now.

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by MerryGoByeBye on Feb 19, 2009 5:43 PM EST up reply actions

Ballot stuffing?

The inanity of crowds.

"no1 has time to read your long comments, are you writing a book?"

by britsoxfan on Feb 19, 2009 4:19 PM EST reply actions

111 people can be wrong

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by MerryGoByeBye on Feb 19, 2009 4:47 PM EST up reply actions

Lineup Optimization

Just out of curiosity. I took the CHONE predictions for each players 2009 OBP and SLG and put them into one of those Lineup optimizer like the one at Baseball Musings

The optimal lineup they produced which would give up 5.682 runs per game was:

Drew, Ortiz, Bay, youk, Ped, Ells, Lowrie, Lowell, V-Tek

My personal opinion lineup:

Drew, Ped, Bay, Ortiz, Youk, Lowell, Ells, Lowrie, V-Tek

by drabidea on Feb 19, 2009 4:27 PM EST reply actions

The theoretical optimal lineup is usually based almost purely on descending obp. I like your lineup.

by BTLove on Feb 19, 2009 6:26 PM EST up reply actions

Most people voted for Ells...

but it seems like none of them are here to explain why. It also seems that all of the regulars here are pretty much in favor of Drew (at least to start the year).

by BTLove on Feb 19, 2009 6:22 PM EST reply actions

That's what I said elsewhere

It’s odd, isn’t it?

"Hey we got a lot in common here... I'm gonna rape you"

by MerryGoByeBye on Feb 19, 2009 7:36 PM EST up reply actions

I voted for Ellsbury

because I am optimistic that he can become a great leadoff hitter. Good baserunning, gets on base well, good average, all around high run scorer. In an ideal world, he could do all of this right out of the gate. However, I’m in favor of Drew leading off for the first month or so until Jacoby gets more comfortable.

by Schulz on Feb 20, 2009 11:56 AM EST up reply actions

How come

most who posted here want Drew to leadoff, yet the poll went waaaay the other way. Are only the really intellegent OTMers writing comments :-)

Drew to leadoff until Ells establishes himself. The kid still needs more patience. Drews OBP is great, plus he sees more pitches which has effects throughout the entire lineup.

by sydneysox on Feb 19, 2009 7:39 PM EST reply actions