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George Springer Is The First Player In MLB History To Hit Three Leadoff Home Runs In Team's First Seven Games

Seattle Mariners v Houston Astros

Last year, my team to buy in on early was the Cleveland Indians. That pick turned out okay. This year, it’s the Houston Astros. I wrote about them a little bit the day after Opening Day, just talking about how I was high on them going into 2016, but how they were also a young team that needed the right veteran pieces to put them over the hump. They’ve gotten the pieces that they’ve needed to contend in 2017, and they could still add more at the trade deadline to become legitimate contenders for the American League pennant. Jose Quintana, anyone?

But to my point about how they were a good team even last year, albeit missing the postseason, this was a team that started to take off after they moved George Springer to the leadoff spot on May 24 last season. The Astros were 17-28 coming into that game, which was one of the worst records in baseball, ranking 27th out of 30 teams. Since that game, the Astros are 71-53, which is the sixth best record in the MLB, behind the Cubs, Indians, Dodgers, Rangers, and Nationals. All five of the teams ahead of Houston were playoff teams last year.

Seven games into the 2017 season, and Springer has three leadoff home runs already, one of which was on Opening Day off of King Felix. The leadoff home runs represent three of Springer’s four homers this year, with the other one being a walk-off blast in the 13th inning of the series finale of the first series of the season against Seattle. Springer became the first player in MLB history to hit three leadoff home runs in his team’s first seven games, and because of that, he leads the league in homers, and total bases (20).

If and when the Astros make the postseason, they’ll likely have more than one MVP candidate, like Carlos Correa and Jose Altuve, but watch out for Springer to join that group.