Cameron: The Leadoff Hitter

When asked by reporters whether he has considered batting Mike Cameron in the leadoff position, Mets manager Willie Randolph responded, “If I feel I need him, I'd feel comfortable.”

…this is far from a suggestion that he will actually bat cameron at the top of his order, but it was enough to spark a lot of debate in the blogosphere and on talk radio today…

…the thing is, the reporter that asked randolph the question obviously realized the following…

With runners in scoring position, Cameron is batting just .214…

…far from stellar…

When batting with nobody on base ahead of him, like he would be when hitting leadoff, Cameron is batting .395 and has reached base nearly 52 percent of the time…

When leading off an inning, Cameron is batting .368 and has reached base roughly half of his plate appearances…

…that is remarkable…

Aside from getting on base, a leadoff must also be able to work a count and give the hitters behind him a chance to familiarize themselves with the pace of the current pitcher…

In 86 plate appearances on the year, Cameron has worked a full count 25 percent of the time…on par with Craig Counsell…but, better than David Eckstein’s 10 percent, Johnny Damon’s 8 percent, Brian Roberts’s 7 percent and Barry Bonds’s 7 percent from last season…

In those full counts, Cameron has walked half of the time…

…statistics aside, cameron is an aggressive baseball player…his head is always in the game, he runs the bases well, he’s fast, he strives to make big plays and his teammates respect him as a friend and a player, so he can lead by example and motivate the team from the front of the line…

…i don’t think this is where cameron should bat long-term, but i’d be down for seeing how it plays out while he is posting numbers, such as the above…