If the guy has RBI then his OBP is ignorable!
If the guy has BA his OBP is useless to even look at!
If the guy hits for Power you don’t care how often he gets on base! Again OBP a aUseless metric!

The only time anyone brings up a guy’s OBP is if they have this God Like devotion to Moneyball/Sabermetrics or there is nothing else good in his statline to talk about!

NO!
So You have no point he’s called the leadoff hitter but does it at best once per game and more if the Pitcher happens to make the last out the previous inning.
SO none of your guys on base crap really applies to the leqadoff hitter and only the first inning can you be sure NO ONE will be on while in most every other bat there is good chance someone will BE ON where a hit is more important than a walk!

If no-one is on base when he is up isn’t a walk just as good as a hit?

a .250 hitter with a .350 OBP is much better as a leadoff hitter than a .280 hitter that has a .320 OBP because those extra hits don’t result in many RBI, yet those additional times on base result in more RBI from the guys that follow them….

My point is the 8 and 9 hitters are the two weakest hitters in the lineup so the leadoff hitter is less likely to come to the plate with men on base.

Jose Reyes led the lead in hitting last season, but only had 44 RBI. Jason Bay batted .100 points lower, but had 13 more RBI in 100 less AB.

Order matters…

The only time a leadoff hitter actually is forced to come up WITHOUT men on base is the first AB of the game. After that he is no longer a leadoff hitter for all intents and purposes and may not start off more innings than any other batter!

There are 9 more innings where he either won’t get up to bat or start the inning so your theory is blown to bits after the first AB has happened!

THATS the point here, the rest is just crap invented by OBP Accolytes to give it more importance than it really deserves!

If a guy gets on because he has a good BA then what his OBP is doesn’t matter!
Increase the BA at the spot and you increase the BA with it!
OBP is never WORSE than BA!

It is pointless to even look at it because the only reason to use it at all is when there is no other thing that is worth saying about him!

If the guy can hit then it’s there.
If he can’t hit then it might be there but is pointless because the batter can’t keep it up without the Pitcher’s help!
And if he does other things that makes it look good the other things are way more important than the OBP!

Hence why no one talks about Batista’s OBP they talk about the HRs to dismiss his lowly BA!

in the NL, where you bat in the order matters because there are certain spots in the order that come up with men on base (3/4/5/6/7) and then you the other spots (8/9/1/2) where the batter usually has less men on base.

OBP matters for 1/2 hitters because RBI chances are much less so a single is equal to a walk where as a #6 hitter, a hit is better than a walk since it can score a runner if there is not a force play.

And I still would take the better hitter than the better walker any day of the week!
If the BA is above .300 so too is his OBP!

As for if I want either of those guys on my team it sure won’t be OBP that determines that factor!
Nor where I bat them!

I’ll take Grandy.

What player would you rather have leading off?
A .250 hitter with a .350 OBP
B..280 hitter with a .320 OBP

What player would you rather have batting 6th?
A .250 hitter with a .350 OBP
B..280 hitter with a .320 OBP

This is the point you seem to forget…

No one talks or pumps up Batista because of his OBP. Anyone who thinks he is a good player BECAUSE of that OBP has obviously never seen what he does or why you wouold want him!

OBP is duscussed and important ONLY when there is nothing else worth talking about regarding the player…

“If you pumping up a guy using his OBP then he can’t hit and your ignoring the BA!
If you can talk about his BA then you don’t need to talk about OBP because if the BA is good the OBP is better!”

I can prove that wrong with 1 player so easily.

.244 batting average, .360 on base percentage.
Jose Bautista.

OBP is the story of BA plus walks and hit by pitches!
Worthless unless all your interested in doing is talking about walks and getting hit or have to avoid talking about his BA because it’s awful!

You need to have a balance which is why I have always been against Murphy and Turner in the 2 hole. They are guys that put the ball in play and batting 6th/7th gives him more RBI chances than batting 2nd, whereas someone like Tejada, Torres that have high walk rates are better suited for the top of the order as their RBI chances are very low given they follow the 8 and 9 hitters.

Our most efficient lineups based on this season’s current numbers are:
vs. LHP: Torres, Tejada, Wright, Hairston, Duda, Murphy (1B), Cedeno, Thole
vs. RHP: Tejada, Kirk, Wright, Duda, Davis, Murphy, Valdespin, Thole

Bay, Baxter, Duda, Hairston and either Valdespin or Kirk are good enough when platooned properly….