Craig Counsell Picks Correct Leadoff Hitter for Cubs
It is great to see that the Chicago Cubs have a manager that will use a player’s strengths to help the whole team. Craig Counsell has once again made the correct move in my eyes, as the new Cubs skipper will have Ian Happ leading off on Opening Day against the Texas Rangers on Thursday night.
In 2023, Happ primarily batted third in the lineup under manager David Ross. The switch-hitting outfielder had a solid season, slashing .248/.360/.431, with a 118 wRC+, but there were definitely times throughout the season that Happ would have been better utilized if he was at the top of the order. Happ ended the year with 99 walks, leading the Cubs and ranking fourth-best in all of MLB. His .360 OBP was also first on the team.
So yeah, Happ is the perfect candidate to be the Cubs leadoff hitter and that’s where he’ll be to begin the 2024 season.
“Yeah, Ian will lead off on Thursday,” Counsell said. “He’s gonna hit at the top of the lineup. His skillset and the people around him, I think it’s a good spot for him. This is a guy that walked 99 times last year, which in today’s game, a really, really impressive number.
It should be simple, right? What do you want your leadoff hitter to do? Get on base. In 2023, Cubs leadoff men ranked 20th in MLB with a .332 OBP.
Now, this is only one component of the lineup and it won’t mean much if the guys behind Happ don’t come through, but you can’t deny that putting immediate pressure on the opposing pitcher can be beneficial.
This is a small sample size, but let’s look back at the mid-to-late 2010s Cubs, the team that made the playoffs four years in a row, went to three straight league championship series and of course won the 2016 World Series. We all remember Dexter Fowler being a stud as the leadoff man, but during that era the Cubs consistently had great OBP from the top of the batting order.
2015: .344 OBP, 9th in MLB (16th in Runs)
2016: .381 OBP, 1st in MLB (3rd in Runs)
2017: .324 OBP, 18th in MLB (4th in Runs)
2018: .366 OBP, 2nd in MLB (9th in Runs)
And yeah, that 2017 season was brutal early on, when Kyle Schwarber was leading off and it got so bad that he was optioned to Triple-A in June. But again, having a good leadoff hitter doesn’t guarantee success or vice versa. I mean, as much as I complained about the leadoff spot in 2023, the Cubs did finish sixth in runs scored in MLB despite the below average OBP from the one hitter.
However, I’ll maintain the belief that having a guy who consistently gets on base is actually good and should be your leadoff hitter more often than not.
As for the rest of the Cubs lineup to begin the 2024 season, we pretty much saw it on Monday against the St. Louis Cardinals in the second-to-last spring training game down in Arizona.
LF – Ian Happ
RF – Seiya Suzuki
CF – Cody Bellinger
3B – Christopher Morel
SS – Dansby Swanson
2B – Nico Hoerner
1B – Michael Busch
C – Yan Gomes
DH – Mike Tauchman
So, what are your thoughts on the leadoff hitter, the Cubs lineup? Any changes? Wish they should have signed a better DH option or kept someone else on the roster? Let us know in the comments!
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