Old schoolers will tell you that Coco Crisp is your ideal leadoff man. Guy hits for a good average, gets on base at a decent enough clip, has a bit of pop in his bat, can lay down a bunt, and he's the fastest guy on the team. Yep, he's a great leadoff hitter. Except during his absence, we've found a better one. His name is Kevin Youkilis. This isn't the first time the Red Sox experimented with a slow-footed third basemen who got on base with the best of him. His name escapes me right now, but last I heard, he was on his way to Cooperstown. Youk has a long way to go to match Boggs' Hall of Fame career, but Boggs showed you don't have to be a speed demon to be a good leadoff hitter. With Crisp out, Youkilis is our leadoff guy. But when Crisp comes back, there will be an intense debate on whether or not Crisp leads off. The team will be better served with Youk at the top and Crisp carrying the bottom. When you have two tremendous hitters like David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez in your line-up, you want them to get as many at bats and have as many with guys on base as possible. Youkilis can provide that service. Youkilis provides to the line-up everything Johnny Damon did (sans the speed). Youk takes pitches, he fouls them off, he'll draw walks, he'll ground out but he'll do it on the 10th pitch of the at bat. He's going to hit around .300 and he will have a .400 OBP or around that by the end of the year. His minor league career OBP was an eye-popping .440. Youkilis would be the ideal lead off hitter for this line-up because he and Loretta can get on base often enough to give Ortiz and Manny RBI opportunities all season long. Crisp will give you a similar effect at the top of the line-up. However, if you bat Crisp fifth instead of Youkilis, the benefits effect the entire team. You see, Crisp's speed would be better utilized at the bottom of the order. When you have him batting in front of Ortiz and Manny, you don't want him to steal as many bases, leaving first open and tempt the pitcher to not give Ortiz or Manny anything to hit. You also don't want Crisp getting caught stealing second and then have Papi send one over the Monster. Case in point, Damon's reduced SB totals while in a Red Sox uniform. He had 30 SBs his first two years in Boston and dropped down to below 20 during the last two years. Those were two of his best hitting years of his career but he was stealing less. Why? Because he had two MVP caliber players hitting behind him. Ortiz didn't get hot until around the All Star break of 2003. Johnny only had 11 steals after the All Star break in 03, compared to 19 prior to that. He stole less then 20 bases each of the last two years for the same reason; you want as many guys on base as possible when Papi and Manny come to bat. So if you put Crisp in the leadoff spot with Ortiz and Manny in the line-up and you won't see many steals, regardless of Crisp's speed. Now batting him fifth, THERE you may see a few steals. When you've got Varitek, Nixon, and Lowell all batting behind you, the worry about "running yourself out of a big inning" is less of a concern. In fact, they will be aided by Crisp dancing at first. Pitchers are unnerved enough facing Ortiz or Manny, Crisp won't make things much worse for the pitcher. But having him dance over there with Lowell at bat may distract the pitcher enough to hang a breaking ball or have a pitch get too much of the plate. The bottom of the order hitters will benefit simply by getting better pitches to hit. You also have the benefit of Crisp's speed helping the bottom hitters knock in runs. Nixon, Varitek, and Lowell likely won't hit 80 HRs combined between the three of them, Manny and Ortiz could do that on their own. The Three Amigos are doubles hitters, where as you have more home runs coming out of the Dynamic Dominican Duo. Anyone can score a run when Ortiz hits a bomb 400 feet. Lowell won't hit one that far, he's more likely to get a ball in the gap. Crisp has such tremendous speed that he could score from first on a ball in the game. If you put Youkilis in the 5/6 hole, you'll have a runner on third instead of scoring. That's really what it boils down to. Youkilis can do many of the same things Crisp will be asked to do if he bats leadoff, namely get on base and don't make mistakes. Crisp's speed can be valuable at the top but it is minimized because of the Dominican Effect. So it's not the lead off spot we should be concerned about, it's the 5 hole. The bottom of the line-up needs some help and Crisp can offer more help then Youkilis could. Crisp's speed will be better utilized both by getting steals and by upsetting the pitcher enough to make Mike Lowell look like a Silver Slugger. Youkilis also won't score on that ball to the gap; Crisp can without getting winded. What Crisp offers to the team in the 5 hole outweighs what Youkilis would give and that gap is larger then the gap between what Youkilis and Crisp offer in the lead off spot. But this makes too much sense for it to ever happen.