Morning everyone and happy Monday!<\/p>\n
We\u2019re now two games into the spring schedule and while there\u2019s not much we can really glean from these early contests, we do have some hints about how manager Mark Kotsay plans to write out his lineup this coming season.<\/p>\n
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Reigning Rookie of the Year Nick Kurtz is the Athletics\u2019 best hitter and one would normally think the 3-hole is the spot reserved for the team\u2019s best hitter. The A\u2019s are not your typical team however. When the league zigs, we zag. In that sense it shouldn\u2019t be any surprise that the Athletics are genuinely considering using Kurtz as the primary leadoff man this season.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not an unfamiliar spot for Kurtz, who was in the leadoff spot 18 times in his rookie campaign. He hit .242\/.413\/.403 with four long balls in that spot. That on-base percentage is to die for but the power wasn\u2019t as prodigious and he\u2019s not exactly a burner on the basepaths either. Not that that is the A\u2019s calling card right now, but you don\u2019t want a Bengie Molina clogging up the basepaths.<\/p>\n
Now, Kotsay says that yesterday\u2019s lineup isn\u2019t \u201cset in stone\u201d, and that he\u2019s merely putting Kurtz and Shea Langeliers near the top of the order to get them as many at-bats as possible, but it\u2019s hard to believe that he\u2019s not seriously considering Kurtz atop the lineup when Opening Day rolls around. And frankly, it wouldn\u2019t be a surprise to see Langeliers right behind him.<\/p>\n
In a sense, it might be genius. Leadoff guys get more at-bats over the course of the season than 3-hole hitters. It might not seem like much but those extra plate appearances really do add up and by the end of the season the leadoff man will likely have dozens more at-bats than guys just a spot or two lower in the batting order. Kotsay even acknowledged this when discussing lineup configurations:<\/p>\n
\u201cMy opinion, getting the best hitter on the team the most amount of at-bats is productive,\u201d Kotsay said. \u201cEspecially when that at-bat comes around the 18th through the 21st out of a game when a starter is going through a lineup a third time, it\u2019s nice to get those guys an opportunity. It presents a leverage situation.<\/p>\n
It makes sense in one way, but not in others. Kurtz could very well be a tone-setter for the club but the team could be leaving extra runs on the table just to get him a few extra at-bats. Imagine a world where Jacob Wilson and Jeff McNeil, two slappy on-base machines, get on and set up Kurtz for a three-run bomb in the first inning. That sounds better than a solo shot to start the game to me, but what do I know. We\u2019ll be keeping an eye on where Kurtz hits during this spring but it seems like the A\u2019s have already sort of decided that he\u2019s the best option to leadoff. What do you guys think? Is it genius? Or are the A\u2019s way overthinking this?<\/p>\n
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Have a great week A\u2019s fans.<\/p>\n
A\u2019s Coverage:MLB News and Interest:Best of X:<\/p>\n
Sevy gearing up for the WBC:<\/p>\n
Baez\u2019s new slider a game-changer?<\/p>\n
Not A\u2019s related but funny:<\/p>\n
Lin\u2019s spring debut didn\u2019t go all that well:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Morning everyone and happy Monday! We\u2019re now two games into the spring schedule and while there\u2019s not much…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2391],"tags":[537,5,8809,21477,1950,1332,29620,55,14553,706,1327,4215,4,3226,459,3442,1949],"class_list":["post-588526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-athletics","tag-athletics","tag-baseball","tag-brady-basso","tag-henry-baez","tag-jacob-wilson","tag-jeff-mcneil","tag-joel-kuhnel","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-leadoff-spot","tag-luis-morales","tag-luis-severino","tag-mark-kotsay","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-athletics","tag-nick-kurtz","tag-shea-langeliers","tag-the-athletics"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116120806057609875","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}