LOS ANGELES, CA — I began the lead-up to today’s story with the usual information about the starting pitchers. Like the fact that the Minnesota Twins, 23-18, first place in the AL Central Division, begin a three-game series with the Dodgers. LA is 26-15 in first place in the NL West and coming off a three-game sweep of the Padres. The Twins are batting .228 as a team, and the Dodgers are hitting .229.
Twins starter RHP Pablo López, Cabimas, Venezuela, faces the Dodgers for the fourth time in his career, and the fact that LA starter Noah Syndergaard is coming off of an early exit last week due to a nasty lacerated right index finger after the bottom of the 1st inning vs. the Brewers in Milwaukee.
But then, something struck me as odd when filling out my lineup today. Why is Joey Gallo in the leadoff spot for the Twins? He leads Minnesota in home runs with nine and is hitting his typical .209. We see this throughout baseball due to the emphasis on home runs instead of getting on base in the leadoff spot to set the table for the heavy home run hitters coming up in the three and four spots.
Example: In Toronto today, Aaron Judge batting second in the first inning, hit a solo home run. Three batters later in the same inning, Willie Calhoun hit a two-run homer. Just saying, get one or two runners on before the big boys come to the plate! This is not rocket science, people. It is just fundamental baseball 101.
I began to wonder, is it the young geniuses with ten to fifteen years of experience in the front offices of these organizations making the lineup cards out and not the baseball lifers in the dugout who have seen more baseball than the average brilliant college graduate? I assure you Dusty Baker, Buck Showalter, and Bruce Bochy would have something to say about Gallo, who is nineteen for ninety-one with thirty-four strikeouts batting leadoff!
If you look at MLB’s list of leaders in hitting for individual teams and as a total for the league, you will see that they list the leaders by home run totals and not by batting average. MLB didn’t need all these rule changes over the past few years (with more to come) to liven up the game. They just need to play baseball the way it was meant to be played.
So how did Joey do? 0-3 with one strikeout. I rest my case.
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