If you’re into heavy statistical analysis, you probably already read Cyril Morong’s excellent baseball blog “Cybermetrics”. Yesterday he posted an in-depth analysis of baseball’s best leadoff hitters and to little surprise the Mets’ Jose Reyes is tops on his list.
The basic concept of the analysis is which leadoff hitters have the best statistics in terms of getting themselves into scoring position without creating outs most frequently. There were two variations that you can see in the chart above, one penalizing the player for hitting home runs and one without the penalty. In both cases, Reyes is statistically the best leadoff hitter.
I can’t say that I’m surprised by that because watching Reyes play everyday is a real treat for Mets fans. It’s interesting to see that Florida Marlins shortstop Hanley Ramirez jumps from number 9 to number 2 on the list when the home run penalty is removed.
The blog post is a good read with heavy mathematical analysis.
The Mets Report 