Denard Span has grown into Minnesota Twins’ leadoff role

Span is “getting on base four or five times a game”...isn’t that like some sort of record or something?

Denard Span traces his evolution as a leadoff hitter to the laser eye surgery he had in 2007. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire thinks it was Span’s I’ll-show-you determination. Venerable sabermetrician Bill James thinks, perhaps, it was natural maturation, a more hitter-friendly home ballpark than Span had for much of his minor-league career and a natural shift in Span’s game.

...“When we put him in that leadoff role, he just took it to heart. It was probably in there, but I think he just decided this is what I need to do to help this ballclub,” Gardenhire said. “I didn’t expect it. I didn’t know what to expect really. But he just kind of took off, and all of a sudden you’ve got this guy that’s getting on base four or five times a game, not afraid to take two strikes and (who) can hit with two strikes, and he just became a player.”

...James, the author and senior adviser for the Boston Red Sox’s baseball operations, said Span’s leadoff evolution might be traced to a number of things, the first being that, in baseball, “different skills mature at different ages” and that OBP is a “late-maturing skill.”

James also pointed out that Class AA New Britain’s ballpark, where Span spent two full seasons, is not hitter-friendly, and offered up Boston’s Kevin Youkilis as an example of a hitter who changed his game from the minors to the majors.

Youkilis became well known in the Michael Lewis book, “Moneyball,” for his on-base prowess. Oakland general manager Billy Beane reportedly called him the Greek God of Walks, but when Youkilis finally stuck in the major leagues his walks diminished, replaced instead by improved power numbers.

“He walked a lot in the low minors because he has a hitting zone; he was looking for a pitch in that zone. In the minors, the pitches were all over the place. In the majors, more of them are in that zone where he will swing,” James wrote in an e-mail to the Pioneer Press.

“The minors are about getting to the majors. The majors are about winning. You might figure, if you’re at (Class) AA and hitting third or fifth, that drawing walks isn’t going to help you get to the majors. But once you get to the majors and you’re a leadoff hitter, maybe somebody tells you to get on base.”