Earlier this season, Matt Williams seemed to make Michael Taylor his leadoff man because he was replacing his regular leadoff man. On Friday, he's playing the best defensive infielder he has at first base because Danny Espinosa is in the lineup in place of Ryan Zimmerman. Here we go again......
At the beginning of the season, Washington Nationals manager Matt Williams used rookie Michael A. Taylor in the leadoff spot. It appeared that there were a couple of things that persuaded Williams to go in that direction.
- Despite the high strikeout rate and the fact that he hadn't proven he could hit big league pitching yet, Taylor was fast
- Taylor was replacing Denard Span, who happened to be the Nats leadoff man
There didn't appear to be a whole lot of creativity in how Williams decided to handle that spot in the order.