Best leadoff-man today

[manny tortolero]

With Pierre's injury comes to my mind the question about who is the best leadoff man today in baseball?
Pierre is on base with regularity thanks to his contact and a good (but not great) walk ratio plus can steal bases with efectivity and is not a defensive liability. Probably he fits perfectly in the definition about what you want as a a first bat.
Who are the best leadoff-man today? a top five ranking is welcome.

[manny tortolero]

Only to be clear, I am not asking for a list of guys with good obp that could be a good leadoff-man but they are not (ie, Bobby Abreu); I am asking for the list of the best leadoff-man (first bats) in the baseball: Pierre, Furcal, Damon, etc.

[Crash Course]

Do Scott Podsednik and Ichiro Suzuki bat lead-off? They should be there.
Lofton, Rafael Furcal and Juan P would round out the top 5.....

[Makofan]

Do Scott Podsednik and Ichiro Suzuki bat lead-off? They should be there.
Lofton, Rafael Furcal and Juan P would round out the top 5.....

What about Ray Durham? Decent OBP and SLG

[WiredTiger]

Ichiro, Jeter, Pierre, Damon

Not a lot of great leadoff hitters in today's game. I guess even rickey henderson would hit in the three hole in today's game.

[Crash Course]

Here's an interesting way to look at the top 10 from 2003:

SEASON
2003
PLATE APPEARANCES >= 502
STOLEN BASES >= 25
CAUGHT STEALING displayed only--not a sorting criteria

RUNS CREATED/GAME RC/G PA SB CS
1 Carlos Beltran 8.24 602 41 4
2 Edgar Renteria 7.02 663 34 7
3 Alfonso Soriano 6.56 734 35 8
4 Scott Podsednik 6.46 628 43 10
5 Rafael Furcal 6.36 734 25 2
6 Ichiro Suzuki 6.11 725 34 8
7 Kenny Lofton 5.88 610 30 9
8 Johnny Damon 5.40 690 30 6
9 Juan Pierre 5.18 746 65 20
10 Rocco Baldelli 4.82 684 27 10

[manny tortolero]

Jeter do not qualify. This year Lofton must be the NYY leadoff man and in the last three seasons Jeter only had 272 AB as leadoff man. However, is funny, his best offensive numbers are in that role (last three seasons):
Batting #1 232 AB .310 avg .366 obp .547 slg .913 ops
Batting #2 1230 AB .307 avg .383 obp .434 slg .817 ops
Batting #3 277 AB .321 avg .382 obp .440 slg .822 ops

[manny tortolero]

Beltran do not qualify as leadoff-man in the last three years. Basically he has been a third bat doing really good in that role. In fact as leadoff man, few AB BTW, his perfomance is poor (last three years):

Batting #1 141 AB .248 avg .278 obp .383 slg .661 OPS
Batting #2 300 AB .300 avg .374 obp .527 slg .901 OPS
Batting #3 1014 AB .291 avg .361 obp .522 slg .883 OPS
Batting #4 164 AB .317 avg .385 obp .457 slg .842 OPS

[manny tortolero]

Renteria do not qualify as leadoff man, in fact he has only 15 AB in the last three years batting first in the order (last three seasons):
By Batting Order
Batting #1 15 AB .133 avg .235 obp .133 slg .368 ops
Batting #2 188 AB .298 avg .357 obp .410 slg .767 ops
Batting #6 600 AB .323 avg .378 obp .480 slg .858 ops
Batting #7 668 AB .284 avg .342 obp .407 slg .749 ops

[sweaver]

Both leagues combined?

My working list:
1. Shannon Stewart
2. Podsednik (although I don't expect him to repeat last year)
3. Ichiro
4. Furcal
5. Lofton

None of these guys is any threat to Rickey, or even Rock Raines at their peaks.

Does Boston use Mueller at leadoff? They should. Ditto NYY and Jeter, StL and Renteria (maybe they will this year), or Brad Wilkerson in Montreal.

[hmrsf]

Mueller should bat leadoff. Damon is not the lead off hitter he use to be.

[Sidewinder]

I like sweaver's list, but I think I'd substitute Durham for Lofton.

[manny tortolero]

I think Lofton will be the leadoffman for NYY this year. His obp last year (.352 overall,.373 against RHP) was still good enough for the work and although he is not so efective stealing bases as used to be, with Jeter's contact as second bat he must be running a lot and scoring a lot of runs courtesy of Mr. Rodriguez and Mr. Giambi. If he can be at least the same player he was the last year, the top of the order in Yankees lineup will be very funny. Probably his only problem is if he is usefull against LHP ( .283 obp, really bad). Probably they need to fill that hole. And he can do the CF work, at least better than Bernie.
Damon is different, his obp away of Fenway was a tiny .322 which is really not good news for the Sox and he is not a great CF. However I can not find a better spot for him in that lineup and no one else qualify for the work. Mueller's last year slugging (.540) makes a waste put him as leadoff hitter.

[huskerdru]

I like Furcal...IF he keeps drawing more BBs and cutting down on his Ks.

I also like him and Giles as the best 1-2...