Atlanta Braves: assessing the leadoff and cleanup lineup spots for 2019

Now that Acuna Jr. will be starting with the Atlanta Braves on Opening Day, who should bat leadoff and who should bat cleanup? Lets look at some data from the 2018 season to get a better idea.

The Atlanta Braves have usually kept it pretty simple when it comes to the batting lineup. The quick-guy usually leads off and the power-guy usually bats cleanup – with Freddie Freeman holding down his preferred three-spot.

Over the years lineup construction has become a little more complicated than that, with teams now placing their best overall hitter at second in the batting order and sometimes even at leadoff as different interpretations of analytics take hold.

Going into the 2019 season, the Braves have two spots in the batting order that need to be sorted out. Without much news yet as to how the lineup will look, we’ll do our own evaluation of the available options.

I find the best way to make an educated guess is to look at some data and determine exactly what we are looking for, and the leadoff and cleanup spot in a batting lineup both do very different things.

You need your first batter to get on base, setting up the rest of the offense for that half-inning. The cleanup hitter needs to not only possess above-average contact skills, but also be endowed with some power with the premise of knocking in runs.

So with a general idea of what we are after for these two spots in the batting order, let’s look at what’s available on the Braves’ roster and determine the two players that best fit.

Leadoff Requirements

I want to make something clear before I begin. I am, in no shape or form, an expert on lineup construction. I do not, and never have had, a position in Major League Baseball.

The content I am providing is simply from data and statistics that I find to most accurately resolve this subject at hand. So with that, lets dive in.

We know we need a hitter that can best be implemented at the leadoff spot in the lineup, and another player that can meet the required needs at the cleanup spot.

For some clarification, what’s the best description for these two places in the batting order?

We will begin with the lead-off hitter:

Here is a nice definition from writer Sky Kalkman of Beyond the Boxscore:

"The old-school book says to put a speedy guy up top. Power isn’t important, and OBP is nice, but comes second to speed. The Book says OBP is king. The lead-off hitter comes to bat only 36% of the time with a runner on base, versus 44% of the time for the next lowest spot in the lineup, so why waste homeruns? The lead-off hitter also comes to the plate the most times per game, so why give away outs? As for speed, stealing bases is most valuable in front of singles hitters, and since the top of the order is going to be full of power hitters, they’re not as important. The lead-off hitter is one of the best three hitters on the team, the guy without homerun power. Speed is nice, as this batter will have plenty of chances to run the bases with good hitters behind him."

So this is a pretty standard way to go about it. I think most people will agree that you want some speed at the top of the lineup and that the ability to get on base is very important.  Home run power should be a bonus and not a requirement, as homers with no one on base isn’t the end-goal here.

Now that we have a description for lead-off hitters that I think most of us would agree on, what Braves’ players would make the best candidates?