Matt Carpenter hit leadoff as Cards best hitter. The second spot, according to statisticians, has the best mix of opportunities with men on base and plate appearances. The 3rd spot statistically has the most ABs with 2 outs and no men on and as such may not be the most optimum place for the best hitter.
Altuve significantly outslugged Springer last year (.531 v .457). I recognize it was probably an anomaly - but even so, Altuve slugged .456 the previous two years ('13-'14); Springer .457 the past two years. And while Altuve has more stolen bases, anecdotally, I consider him a worse baserunner. (Again, that's my fuzzy memory/bias - but Altuve *seems* to run into a lot more outs on the basepaths.)
Yep; I'd be OK with Springer-Altuve-Bregman-Correa; god, I remember Beltran just raking in the two hole in '04. At some point, I think Bregman is going to be the ideal lead-off hitter - but I'm content to let that develop rather than force it. And I like him hitting second as I think it'll provide Altuve and Correa, not to mention Beltran, ample run-scoring opportunities. It's a good problem to have.
God I hope not. It's not in Correa's DNA to hit .340. Leave hitting for average to guys like Altuve and Bregman. Now if you said Correa's going to lead the league in HRs from the SS position, that's a different story.
So much of Altuve's slugging is BA driven though (prior to last season, which BA is still a part of, but he showed legit power). Altuve is a much better base stealer. Altuve gets thrown out more, but because he is more aggressive, though I'd give George the edge when it comes to base running outside of stealing (I'd guess Springer is actually the faster of the 2, and seems to be better at risk management).
Yep, but so, too, is his on-base percentage. He never walks. That's why the prospect of Altuve falling off a cliff scares me so much; he's so unconventional. But... it's three years and counting, so who am I to make any assumptions?
Baseball Reference measures it. He's +10 runs for his career (mostly driven by his ridiculous 56 steals to 9 caught in 2014).
I'm not afraid anymore (I was originally as I thought we should have traded him, oops). Tony Gwynn was like that. If he walks like he did last year (or grows on it), he'll continue to be an MVP caliber player.
In 2015, he was picked off 8 times. He was thrown out trying to advance a whopping 19 times and caught stealing 13 times. He improved to 4, 10 and 10 last year.
Nobody gets picked off like him. Springer got caught stealing 10 times (plus one pickoff) and surprising to me got thrown out on the bases another 11 times. In fairness, some of those pickoffs are also included in CS (1 last year & 3 in 2015) and 8 of those OOB were at home which has to be partially to blame on Gary Pettis.
Springer is fast once he gets past that initial jump, and he's as athletic as they come... but he lacks that natural quick-twitch speed that all great base-stealers tend to have (including Altuve). Bagwell made up for what he lacked in speed with impeccable base-running and base-stealing technique.
Craig Biggio was never better than Bagwell, but he was an incredible offensive player in his prime hitting lead off. Barry Bonds was a leadoff hitter early in his career. Mike Trout was a leadoff hitter early on as well.
I'm glad I kept reading instead of immediately replying, because I was going to post that exact same thing.
I don't really pay attention to batting average, much more valuable statistics to review when determining the best hitter (which is what I said, I never said Correa will have a better BA). I expect Correa to lead the team in wRC+ this season, thus crowing him best hitter on the team.
