The first month of the season has finished. There have been
a few surprises and some not so surprising. The Brave jump out to a great
start, but were soon overtaken by the Mets 11 game win streak, Adrian Gonzalez becomes
the first player ever to hit 5 HR in a team's first 3 games, and the Cardinals
end the month with best record of 15 and 6.
For the Beat the Streak campaign, the highest streak was set
at 36. My streak reached 7. Most of the time I could not get past two. It has
been very frustrating trying to get a good streak going. My research is not
resolving the issue.
As stated in an earlier message, information is hard to
find. The information that I have found they tell you to look for games in a
hitters ballpark, play the visiting team because they get a full 27 outs, use
the top 3 batters because they normally get more at bats, and do not use the
most popular players. All of these have been great pieces of advice, however I
still cannot get over two wins. Maybe it is just me. I am not very lucky which
in my opinion, is fifty percent of this game.
The strategy I will start looking at is picking the top lead-off
hitters. Several teams have established their lead-off hitters such as Dee
Gordon of the Marlins starting in all 22 game at the lead-off spot, while others
are still looking for that one hitter that can get them started.
The philosophy of a lead-off hitter is a player who has
speed, and takes a lot of pitches looking for anyway to get on base. This can
hurt those playing Beat the Streak because the lead-off hitter can draw a lot
of walks, and to win this game you need hits. Still it is something to look at.
The best lead-off hitter for the month of April was Dee
Gordon of the Marlins. He had 98 AB and 38 hits. He hit safely in every game
except two and is right now riding a seven game hit streak. Defiantly a number
one pick.
Altuve of the Astros is second with 98 AB and 36 hits. He
too has started in all 22 games that the Astros played in the month of April,
and had a nine game hit streak, and is presently working on a ten game hit
streak.
The next two hitters are Matt Carpenter of the Cardinals and
Wil Myers of the Padres, each with 22 hits. Myers has started in 22 of the
Padres first 23 games. The manager of the Padres, Bud Black has even said that
Myers is not your typical lead-off hitter. “He is very aggressive at the plate,
often going after the first pitch. As long as he keeps on getting hits we will
try and change him.”
I have included my list of the top ten lead-off hitters for
the month of April. They a listed by the amount of hits.
|
Player
|
Position
|
Team
|
Games
|
AB
|
Hits
|
AVG
|
|
Gordon
|
2B
|
MIA
|
22
|
93
|
38
|
0.409
|
|
Altuve
|
2B
|
HOU
|
22
|
98
|
36
|
0.367
|
|
Myers
|
CF
|
SD
|
22
|
97
|
28
|
0.289
|
|
Carpenter
|
3B
|
STL
|
18
|
75
|
28
|
0.373
|
|
Aoki
|
LF
|
SF
|
21
|
88
|
27
|
0.307
|
|
Ellsbury
|
CF
|
NYY
|
20
|
84
|
27
|
0.321
|
|
Fowler
|
CF
|
CHIC
|
19
|
77
|
23
|
0.299
|
|
Betts
|
CF
|
BOS
|
19
|
83
|
20
|
0.241
|
|
Martin
|
CF
|
TEX
|
19
|
83
|
20
|
0.241
|
|
Granderson
|
RF
|
NYM
|
22
|
78
|
18
|
0.231
|
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