Top 5 Reasons Why... Brandon Watson Will Never Be a Good Leadoff Hitter:
5.) Power: He struggles to hit the ball out of the infield so all that all-world speed everybody talks about with him is reduced to just another singles hitter.
4.) Batting form: He has been making these long, sloppy swings that balls can just coast by untouched. He reminds me a lot of Endy Chavez in this regard.
3.) Plate discipline: He swings at everything regardless of what the pitch looks like as if he is some power hitter and he is not. He takes a walk every now and then, but it's not enough to put up a decent OBP unless he his hitting in the .350 range.
2.) Aggressiveness (Too Much): His moves on 1st make it so obvious that he's gonna run it makes him an easy pickoff or caught stealing which is why he had an extremely weak 65% success rate on base stealing (compared to the high-70s, low-80s rates put up by guys like Carl Crawford and Juan Pierre).
And finally... #1 reason
1.) Bunting: This guy has made so many errors trying to bunt his way on or to advance the runner that pretty soon pitchers might start intent walking pitchers just to get to Brandon.
The real guys that should leadoff for this team: Tyrell Godwin, Ryan Church, or Marlon Byrd. Their stolen base numbers aren't great, but I'll take 40 doubles (so Vidro only has to hit a single for a run to score), 15 triples (so Vidro only has to hit a fly ball for a run to score), and 20 HRs (so Vidro doesn't have to do anything for a run to score), from my leadoff man than Brandon "hope he hits a single and pray to God he doesn't get caught stealing second or Vidro hits a home run" Watson.
And just as I post this...leadoff man Marlon Byrd:
Top 1st: Washington
- M. Byrd homered to deep left
5.) Power: He struggles to hit the ball out of the infield so all that all-world speed everybody talks about with him is reduced to just another singles hitter.
4.) Batting form: He has been making these long, sloppy swings that balls can just coast by untouched. He reminds me a lot of Endy Chavez in this regard.
3.) Plate discipline: He swings at everything regardless of what the pitch looks like as if he is some power hitter and he is not. He takes a walk every now and then, but it's not enough to put up a decent OBP unless he his hitting in the .350 range.
2.) Aggressiveness (Too Much): His moves on 1st make it so obvious that he's gonna run it makes him an easy pickoff or caught stealing which is why he had an extremely weak 65% success rate on base stealing (compared to the high-70s, low-80s rates put up by guys like Carl Crawford and Juan Pierre).
And finally... #1 reason
1.) Bunting: This guy has made so many errors trying to bunt his way on or to advance the runner that pretty soon pitchers might start intent walking pitchers just to get to Brandon.
The real guys that should leadoff for this team: Tyrell Godwin, Ryan Church, or Marlon Byrd. Their stolen base numbers aren't great, but I'll take 40 doubles (so Vidro only has to hit a single for a run to score), 15 triples (so Vidro only has to hit a fly ball for a run to score), and 20 HRs (so Vidro doesn't have to do anything for a run to score), from my leadoff man than Brandon "hope he hits a single and pray to God he doesn't get caught stealing second or Vidro hits a home run" Watson.
And just as I post this...leadoff man Marlon Byrd:
Top 1st: Washington
- M. Byrd homered to deep left
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