During the winter the Reds and Indians made an I-71 exchange. This trade was a three team trade but the proven players were kept in Ohio, the Reds received OF Shin-Soo Choo while giving the Indians OF Drew Stubbs. When this trade was made official I immediately got excited because I knew the Reds would finally have a true leadoff hitter, something we haven’t had in years, last legit one I can remember off top of my head is Deion Sanders, remember I’m going off the top.
Last year the Reds had one of the worst on base percentages in the MLB at the leadoff slot, if not the worse. This was a sore point for a team that had pretty much every other hole covered. It wasn’t like they didn’t try to fix it they plugged damn near every player that potentially had that skill set into the slot but it never worked like trying to place a square inside a circle.
Erase the memories of last year the Reds now have Choo in the leadoff spot and it has immediately paid dividends for the defending NL Central champs. During the first home stand versus the Angels and Nationals, Choo batted at a .375 clip with 3 home runs, 3 RBIs, 4 walks and a OBP of .514. I know we are just looking at a small sample size because we are just looking at his first 6 games in a Reds uniform but you can don’t nothing but smile when you see the upgrade in that slot.
Choo has been a master on offense in may be the missing piece that can help Cincinnati get their first World Series since 1990 but he hasn’t been perfect hopefully he fixes the blunders in the field, that was one place that Stubbs didn’t have many mistakes. Beggars can’t be choosers so if he isn’t as efficient as Stubbs in the field he’s a hell of an upgrade at the plate.
Choo the people down I-71 are happy to have you manning the leadoff spot, keep doing your thing. Go Reds!
