Best Mets Leadoff Hitter - All-time

[batmagadanleadoff]

This is the topic that The Athletic tackles today. And they have lotsa answers, depending on the criteria they come up with. And they have quite a few ways of approaching this question. Here's an interesting one: Who is the Mets best leadoff hitter over just one single season counting only the at-bats that that player actually led off an inning with - irrespective of where he was slotted in that game's lineup? So if the Mets go down in order in the top of the first, then the cleanup hitter, leading off the second inning, would be credited with one leadoff at-bat for that second inning plate appearance.

Edited April 20, 2020 by Guest

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'm going to take a completely wild guess and say Joel Youngblood

[kcmets]

Jeff Kent

[duan]

Hmmmmm I'm thinking a 5 hitter . Robin Ventura

[Ceetar]

what are we measuring by? minimums? Lerov Stanton.



Matt Harvey was 10x as good when he led off an inning.

[Edgy MD]

I'll go with Wally Backman, 1986.



Nah, fuck it. Brandon Nimmo, 2018.

[kcmets]

It's a crapshoot.

[batmagadanleadoff]

=Ceetar post_id=35502 time=1587423335 user_id=102]
what are we measuring by? minimums? Lerov Stanton.



Matt Harvey was 10x as good when he led off an inning.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Ashburn

[metsmarathon]

interesting. i'll go olerud.

[MFS62]

Delgado.

Later

[Edgy MD]

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Ashburn

Nice one.

[Edgy MD]

I got Nimmo 2018 going .294 / .446 / .569 // 1.015 in 65 plate appearances leading off the game (a split OPS+ of 172), and .277 / .414 / .553 // .967 in 174 plate appearances leading off an inning (a split OPS+ of 172).



Ashborough in 1962 went .284 / .424 / .365 // .789 in 92 plate appearances leading off the game (a split OPS+ of 132), and .343 / .458 / .429 // .886 in 212 plate appearances leading off an inning (a split OPS+ of 149).



But as much as OPS misrepresents the relative value of OBP and SLG as equal, when it should weigh on-base percentage more highly, I think that would be even more true when judging the relative performances of leadoff hitters, so I think they should appear closer to equal than the split OPS+ figures suggest.

[TransMonk]

Henderson 1999

[Chad ochoseis]

One of the ex-Cardinals we got from the days when the Cardinals were a team of leadoff hitters playing hi-bounce baseball on a plastic field.



Gilkey?

[Ceetar]

I looked up this list cause it's pretty much random guessing.



In fact, for the entire existence of the Mets, this split baseball wide results in no difference in OPS. (as one would expect)

[batmagadanleadoff]

One of.youse already got the winning answer.

[Benjamin Grimm]

https://www.tradingcarddb.com/Images/Cards/Baseball/82/82-31972RepFr.jpg>

[LWFS]

Gots to be Ol' Field Helmet, no?

[MFS62]

When I saw that we could include at bats leading off an inning because the player batting ahead of him made the final out of the previous inning, I guessed Delgado because he batted behind Wright a lot. (ducking)

Later

[MFS62]

I looked up this list cause it's pretty much random guessing.

Mine wasn't a "random" guess. When I saw that we could include at bats leading off an inning because the player batting ahead of him made the final out of the previous inning, I guessed Delgado because he batted behind Wright a lot. (ducking)

Later

[batmagadanleadoff]

The answer is, fittingly, one of the slowest Mets ever. John Olerud never once led off a Major League Baseball game. But when he led off an inning in 1999, he reached base at a .528 clip — more than 50 points better than 2000 Benny Agbayani. Olerud's 1.144 OPS leading off an inning that season is the best in franchise history for anyone who led off at least 100 innings in a campaign. Michael Conforto's 2017 is only three points behind, though that has more to do with his 14 homers and 23 extra-base hits than his on-base prowess. In 1962, Frank Thomas led off more innings with a home run than anyone in team history (18).

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

1999 Alfonzo-Olerud-Piazza had to be the most devastating 2-3-4 Holy Trinity in Mets history too. Even if Ollie's leadoff opportunities don;t speak well for the 2nd hitter.

[Edgy MD]

Funny that nobody voted for Dave Magadan.