In 158 plate appearances since moving to the leadoff spot, Martin Prado has a line of .378/.410/.534. Every one of those numbers leads the league (with a minimum of 75 leadoff plate appearances). The next highest leadoff average comes from Ichiro, at .341. That’s a difference of .037 points, and Ichiro is known for having possibly the best bat control in baseball since Tony Gwynn. The next highest OBP comes from Ichiro as well, who has walked 17 more times than Prado. The next highest SLG comes from the player Prado replaced at second base, Kelly Johnson, who already has 30 extra base hits.
Prado’s career numbers as a starter are .319/.363/.459. While those numbers aren’t quite the dominating stats he has as a leadoff hitter this season, they are very impressive to say the least. Having quickly glanced over them they remind me of one player instantaneously, Derek Jeter.
Derek Jeter’s career numbers are .316/.383/.458. So Jeter does gets on base a bit more, but the numbers are scarily similar outside of the .020 points in OBP.
But Back to Prado, he’s currently leading the league in batting average (.340), hits (100), and multi-hit games (33). Six of those multi-hit games have come in the Braves’ past seven, and for the month of June he is batting .390.
Martin is hardly your prototypical leadoff hitter, but he has responded well to the role since the Braves have put him there. They have had a great deal of first inning success and have went 25-10 since Martin has entered the first spot in the lineup. In addition to an astonishing record, the Braves haven’t lost a series with Martin batting first. This is absolutely not a coincidence, and while Jason Heyward moving up to the second spot has helped as well, Martin is the one who has seen his numbers jump drastically since changing spots.
By the way, vote for Prado for the all-star game.
Currently, Prado is projected to have 237 hits, get on base 284 times, hit 14 home runs, and hit 50 doubles. Those a pretty amazing numbers for a utility man turned starter, aren’t they?
