Except when it's played 360 feet at a time like it was in the tenth inning Tuesday night.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

And if Thome happened to lead off that inning, its a tie game. Thats why he hits behind the people who get on base.

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You do know there is no numerical support that the order of the hitters actually correlates to run scoring, right? I'm not being argumentative with you Frank. I'm not a dope like bernstein who reads off P.E.C.O.T.A. numbers as if they're absolute facts. But if you throw the numbers into a computer that randomly orders a team's batters, the best run-scoring configuration is simply batting the hitters from best OPS to worst. Whether that works in practice rather than simulation, I don't know. But I think at the very least, it should make you question your beliefs about batting orders and "leadoff skills".

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Juan Pierre has hit into seven double plays this year, holy crap. That's ridiculous too. Jim Thome has seven. How do you hit into seven double plays with his speed?

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Fire Phil Emery

Also, the White Sox don't need anyone to hit behind people who get on base. They have plenty of those guys. They need guys to get on base at the top. Jim Thome (or Adam Dunn or Nick Johnson or a hundred other guys) are better options than Juan Pierre.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

You hit the ball hard at someone. Chone Figgins has grounded into 14 double plays this year.

Chone Figgins is having an atrocious season. There's a guy who actually might be a worse everyday player than A.J.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Frank never answered my question.

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Fire Phil Emery

This is about right. There IB. Maybe a popup bunt too.

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Fire Phil Emery

That haiku was right
You never think are wrong
This has turned silly

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You suck at haikus.

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Fire Phil Emery

Whatever. Take your unanswered question and wrong sylabled haiku and shove it.

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You're such a petulant, whiny bitch when it comes to the White Sox. "OMG, I might have to admit that a player on the Cubs is better at their position than a player on the Sox." That proves my point perfectly, so thanks.

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Fire Phil Emery

You're quite welcome, dickfor.

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Adam Dunn leading off in the AL would work

The thing is most teams couldn't afford to do that. For the money he's making he has to be a middle of the order hitter. A team probably isn't going to have a better guy than him to bat fourth or fifth. The reasons I suggested Thome as a leadoff hitter for the Sox are a) he was cheap, b) the Sox don't have a good leadoff hitter, and c) they're playing without Thome batting in the middle anyway. Anyone who thinks the Sox aren't a better team both offensively and defensively with Kotsay in left and Thome DHing and leading off is crazy. And as I mentioned, it has been done before. Brian Downing was a lumbering slugger who lead off very successfully. Look at his numbers. He's forgotten and highly underrated. And far from a "traditional" leadoff man. Hell, Wade Boggs might have been slower than Thome and no one ever complained about him leading off. He got on base.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I seem to recall Dewey Evans leading off for the Bosox in the 80's... other than the Brian Downing reference mentioned, I can't think of any other slow-footed DH types leading off.


On a slightly related note, I loved watching those 80's Herzog teams. 7 Pierre-like guys, and a Jack Clark cleaning up.

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1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

Wade Boggs was far from fleet-footed. Also, there have been many relatively slow guys that have been miscast as three-hole hitters when they would have been superior leadoff men simply because of baseball's misguided fetishism of leadoff speed. Guys like Ferris Fain.

I suspect Ozzie Guillen loved watching those Cardinal teams too. I'm sure he also remembers Aparicio and Maury Wills fondly. But their teams weren't playing in the American League circa 2010.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

When I used to play RBI baseball, I would lead off with Kevin Mitchell and his 47 HR's. Trust me, it worked.

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