In the 35 regular season games since Cori McMillan became the leadoff, she has had roughly 19 RBI that were driving someone else in. We all know the reason she was made leadoff - to get more ABs. However, she does not get a lot of opportunities with people on in front of her with .220, 240, .252 hitters in front of her. So, the productivity was not as pronounced as it could have been. Yes , the stereotypical response is that someone protects a hitter, but in this case, if Cori got walked, it was more about Cori and not about Michelle. Cori GOT plenty of walks - in fact - she was walked 41 times. She was MORE likely to be walked because she hit 30 HRS and her batting average was .452 to end the season. Sure Chatfield was a factor, But McMillan got pitched to carefully at times because of Cori. She often came up with 2 outs because the people in front of her ...