{"id":58738,"date":"2023-06-10T15:00:42","date_gmt":"2023-06-10T19:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=58738"},"modified":"2023-06-09T18:27:13","modified_gmt":"2023-06-09T22:27:13","slug":"jonathan-india-leadoff-hitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/06\/10\/jonathan-india-leadoff-hitter\/","title":{"rendered":"Should The Reds Move Jonathan India Back to The Leadoff Spot?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/06\/03\/2023-mlb-rookie-race\/\" target=\"_self\">Cincinnati Reds<\/a> have been longing for a solid leadoff hitter to fill out their lineup. For the majority of the 2023 season, Jonathan India seemed like their guy. India led off for the Reds in 49 games to start the new season. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the last two weeks, however, India has been moved into the three-hole for the Reds. India has provided a good bat in that lineup spot, but you can tell his bat is different. Now with the emergence of Elly De La Cruz, is it time for Jonathan India to return to the leadoff spot?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does Jonathan India\u2019s Spark Plug Approach Translate Better In The Leadoff Spot?\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you compare Jonathan India\u2019s numbers as a leadoff hitter to when he bats third, it doesn\u2019t <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/split.fcgi?id=indiajo01&amp;t=b&amp;year=2023\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">seem like much of a difference.<\/a> The feel and approach though seem a bit different. When India was drafted out of the University of Florida, his power came on in his final season. During his time in the Reds minor league system though, the team felt more confident in his approach and ability to get on base.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When India debuted in 2021, he hit 21 home runs. So far this season he\u2019s tallied six. The power is there, but his contact and on-base skill is much more appreciated. Let\u2019s compare Jonathan India\u2019s numbers based on the batting order.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<strong>Batting Leadoff- \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Batting Third-<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>AVG- .283 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0AVG- .268<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>OBP- .376 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 OBP- .300<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>OPS- .789 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 OPS- .729<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>HR- 3 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0HR- 3<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>RBI- 19 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 RBI- 12<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>BB- 25 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 BB- 1<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>SB- 8 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 SB- 4<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More Guys On Base For Elly Can Never Hurt<\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As already mentioned, Elly De La Cruz is finally here. His presence alone will wreak havoc on opposing pitchers. For how long? That is yet to be determined. With him on the team, you can slot him in as your switch-hitting three-hole hitter and not look back. Moving Jonathan India back to his leadoff position could be a recipe for more runs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">It feels like it could be a matter of days before we see the Reds run out and infield of Elly De La Cruz, Jonathan India, and Matt McLain with Spencer Steer and Christian Encarnacion-Strand handling 1B\/DH. This lineup is gonna be very fun very soon<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9DcTFh2l4f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/9DcTFh2l4f<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tyler Bowen (@bowentyler96) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bowentyler96\/status\/1663172089694633986?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 29, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A perfect top-of-the-order for most days would consist of India, Matt McLain, Cruz, and Spencer Steer. If India feels comfortable, and looks the part of a leadoff hitter, it\u2019s time for the Reds to maximize their production out of the former Rookie of the Year winner.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: Sam Greene-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n<p>Players Mentioned: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/i\/indiajo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-09_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jonathan India<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/delacel01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-09_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Elly De La Cruz<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mclaima01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-09_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt McLain<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/steersp01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-06-09_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Spencer Steer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cincinnati Reds have been longing for a solid leadoff hitter to fill out their lineup. For the majority of the 2023 season, Jonathan India seemed like their guy. India led off for the Reds in 49 games to start the new season. Over the last two weeks, however, India has been moved into the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4479,"featured_media":58742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,2,1071],"tags":[124,5899,2005,4783,645,5868],"class_list":["post-58738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reds","category-featured","category-mlb","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-elly-de-la-cruz","tag-jonathan-india","tag-matt-mclain","tag-nl-central","tag-spencer-steer"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4479"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}