Posted on 04/02/2011 8:53:34 PM PDT by txroadkill
ARLINGTON -- Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler has made a little Major League history after leading off Saturday's game with a home run off Red Sox starter John Lackey.
Kinsler, who hit a leadoff homer Friday vs. Red Sox ace Jon Lester, became the first player in Major League history to lead off the first two games of the season with a home run, according to STATS Inc.
Kinsler has now hit 15 home runs to lead off a game since the beginning of 2008. That's the second most by a player in that time. Rickie Weeks has done it 16 times for the Brewers.
(Excerpt) Read more at mlb.mlb.com ...
Our two big acquisitions, Napoli and Beltre have already paid dividends. Beltre with the Grand Salami tonight.
Do the stupid and meaningless stats ever end?
Do they have a stat of the first player to get an opening day triple against a 40y/o+ starting pitcher while the temp is 66 degrees on a partly cloudy day with less that 30,000 fans in the stands?
Arghhhhhhh
Beckett will either walk or hit him Sunday.
Kinsler has now hit 15 home runs to lead off a game since the beginning of 2008. That's the second most by a player in that time. Rickie Weeks has done it 16 times for the Brewers. . . which suggests that the average for those two slugging leadoff hitters is 5 per season. Which doesn't seem all that high; how many at bats would you figure on average per game? Five, probably for a leadoff hitter. So figure that in a whole season that would map to about 25 HRs overall.Certainly impressive for a leadoff hitter, but hardly Ruthian.
It would suggest that their teams have pretty good cleanup hitters, if they can use a 25 HR type of hitter for leadoff . . .
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