Jorge Soler, the latest prospect called up by the Cubs this year, is making his big league debut tonight, batting fifth. That’s a pretty heady part of the order in which to make your first start in your first game. It got the VORG wondering how many batters have made their debut in each of the nine slots of the batting order. With the Baseball Reference Play Index revved up, here are the counts for each slot, along with the most recent player to debut in it:
| Order | Count | Most recent | Date |
| 1st | 314 | Jonathan Villar | 7/22/2013 |
| 2nd | 288 | Javier Baez | 8/5/2014 |
| 3rd | 185 | Carlos Santana | 6/11/2010 |
| 4th | 81 | Jose Abreu | 3/31/2014 |
| 5th | 200 | Brad Glenn | 6/27/2014 |
| 6th | 461 | Jake Lamb | 8/7/2014 |
| 7th | 614 | Rymer Liriano | 8/11/2014 |
| 8th | 726 | Tomas Telis | 8/25/2014 |
| 9th | 1759 | Anthony Ranaudo | 8/13/2014 |