First Up – the Backstop
Posted by Raphy on May 11, 2008
Catcher Kurt Suzuki has now started 19 games in the lead off spot for the A's. Combined with the 6 games that Ivan Rodriguez has led off for the Tigers there have already been 25 games that a catcher has led off. This is more than all but 6 other seasons since 1956.
Suzuki's 19 are the third most in a season since 1956 by anyone not named Jason Kendall. Of course Kendall owned this category, having made significantly more starts as a leading-off catcher (445) than everyone else since 1956 combined (275).
The interesting name on the list is Craig Biggio, who only led off in 35 out of his 403 (8.7%) starts at catcher (early in his career). Of course, he would go on to become one of the alltime great leadoff hitters and lead off 65% (1526/2336) of his starts at every other position.
