Jimmy Rollins

I did not get to watch the game tonight and I doubt many people watched the entire thing. And there is no one person to blame this game on at all.

I did notice something that has become somewhat of a trend in the box score, though. Jimmy Rollins was 0 for 5. Yesterday he was 0 for 6. In his last 7 games leading off he is 1 for 32.

Perhaps the most upsetting part of this is that it is not even as if he is going 0 for 3 with 2 walks or anything like that. He hasn't walked since May 27th. I wish I was making this stuff up.

I realize that "leadoff" is a very overrated title for a hitter. How often does a leadoff hitter truly lead off? Well, Jimmy Rollins has led off an inning 105 times this season. One very important thing for a leadoff hitter to do is get on base. Well of those 105 plate appearances, he has gotten on base just 22 times, good for an on base percentage of .210. The rest of our team has a .345 on base percentage when leading off an inning. Every single player has a better on base percentage leading off innings than does our actual leadoff hitter:
Feliz - .450 in 40 plate appearances
Bruntlett - .444 in 9 PA
Ibanez - .442 in 52 PA
Dobbs - .364 in 11 PA
Utley - .354 in 48 PA
Ruiz - .333 in 33 PA
Coste - .333 in 12 PA
Stairs - .333 in 6 PA
Victorino - .321 in 53 PA
Howard - .281 in 64 PA
Werth - .255 in 55 PA

In looking at that, you can see that the 3 players with the most plate appearances leading off innings have the worst percentages. However, I will personally guarantee that Shane Victorino, the player who should most likely be leading off in place of Jimmy, would get on base more than 5 times in his next 52 plate appearances leading off innings. And that is all he would need to do to be better than Rollins has been this season.

With an offense like ours with the ability to hit home runs at will, any base runner is a huge advantage. Getting base runners with no one out is even better. When the person leading off every single game can only get on base to start a game just over once a week on average, there is a problem.

I don't think that putting Jimmy in other places in the lineup will necessarily make him better (although he is hitting .409 when batting anywhere but the 1 spot this season). Jimmy getting better is no longer something I worry about. I am only worried about the team being better, and Jimmy Rollins leading off is not the way to do that.

I hope that by now no one thinks I'm being too harsh on J Roll. These numbers should speak for themselves. There is a saying, "Figures lie and liars figure." Well whoever said that never paid any attention to baseball. Baseball is obsessed with these kinds of things. If I didn't watch or see highlights of every game, I would honestly believe that they played half the games simply by looking at the averages and figuring out what should have happened.