Comments on: Stolen base weirdness in 2011

By: Jimbo

Jimbo — Wed, 04 May 2011 06:48:05 +0000

Thanks for the info Johnny.

I'm guessing each previous offensive era had some slap hitters with many singles and not much WAR.

Didn't think it would be 69 though, that's far more than I expected.

By: Johnny Twisto

Johnny Twisto — Tue, 03 May 2011 22:14:46 +0000

I'm guessing [Pierre]'s a good candidate for highest career hits/war for a player with over 1500 hits. Alfredo Griffin had 1688 hits while compiling -2.4 WAR. Pierre currently has about 140 hits per WAR for his career. There have been 69 players in MLB history with at least 1500 hits and more than 100 hits per WAR. Pierre is the active leader in H/WAR among players with at least 1500 hits.

By: Bradley

Bradley — Tue, 03 May 2011 04:53:27 +0000

Hanley Ramirez stole a base today to improve to three steals and four times caught stealing. It's rare for players to have a less than 50% success rate now but it used to be quite common in the "old days." Pierre is also striking out more often than he used to, which is one aspect of his game I've always liked. On the bright side he hasn't hit into a double play yet this year (Have I just jinxed him?)

By: Bradley

Bradley — Tue, 03 May 2011 04:45:30 +0000

Pierre is racking up an RBI for every CS so maybe Ozzie is just hoping he'll continue that trend. Pierre was actually "decent' last year. At least he got hit a lot and his SB% was well over 50% (68/18). I wonder if he is tipping off the catcher that he is going to run (which seems like every time he gets on base). And he already has more errors this year than in most seasons. I'm surprised every boxscore to see his name there in the one slot.

By: Jimbo

Jimbo — Tue, 03 May 2011 04:22:07 +0000

Pierre was thrown out again tonight, and is not 5/13 stealing. The only time he gets on base in the game, and he wipes himself off.

I wonder at what point he may have to shut his running game off. This isn't the 80's, when a player could steal 25/40 and have people think his running game is worthwhile.

By: Jimbo

Jimbo — Tue, 03 May 2011 04:15:56 +0000

On top of the 5/12 stealing bases and the .581 OPS, Pierre has 4 errors in centerfield, and no assists.

It's tough to have a worse 30 games to start the year than that, across the board.

Of course, Pierre, and stolen bases, are fun to watch. I don't have time to watch many games, so I tend to watch the video highlights of every game. It always annoys me that non-run scoring plays are so de-emphasized in highlights. If a player hits a bases empty triple and then the next guy hits a sac fly, the highlight reel shows us the sac fly and omits the triple usually. Likewise, we almost never see stolen bases in the highlight reel, but I'm sure all of us generally find both the SB and the CS to be exciting plays. SB and CS should be shown in highlight reels more often IMO.

By: Jimbo

Jimbo — Tue, 03 May 2011 04:06:13 +0000

I bet no player has ever played as many career games, and earned as much salary money, as Pierre, and had such a low career WAR. He's been leading off full time for over 10 years and has been making 9 mill a year on his current contract, and for his career has only 13 WAR. I'm guessing he's a good candidate for highest career hits/war for a player with over 1500 hits.

By: John Autin

John Autin — Tue, 03 May 2011 02:19:05 +0000

@20, Jimbo -- I'm no fan of Juan Pierre or Ozzie Guillen, either. But leading the league in CS, even in 6 full seasons, is not necessarily an offensive sin. Rickey Henderson led the league in CS each of his first 4 full years; it doesn't say anything about his success rate or the net value of his steals. Many prominent base stealers have led the league in CS as often as they led in SB, or more often. Pierre's running game is overvalued because his career success rate is just under 75%. In the offensive context he has played in, stealing lots of bases at a 75% clip hasn't added much to his teams' scoring -- certainly not enough to offset his modest OBP and total lack of power.

By: Jimbo

Jimbo — Mon, 02 May 2011 23:45:46 +0000

Worst baserunner this year = Juan Pierre? He's been caught 7 times in 12 attempts. Batting leadoff with a .581 OPS, if this continues, Guillen is a confirmed moron. For 7 CS, he probably needs to have at least 30 sb's for his running to have any positive value. Pierre's running game has been one of the most overvalued I've ever seen. All 3 years that he led the league in steals, he also led the league in CS. And if you include this year, he's been the league leader in CS 7 times! All around the league I look at teams and constantly see some of the worst hitters batting 1st or 2nd. It blows my mind.

By: Larry Ryall

Larry Ryall — Mon, 02 May 2011 21:56:08 +0000

@ #7

I don't think you are missing anything. There have been 297 stolen bases so far in the NL, all other splits seem to reflect this, but stolen base splits per position exceed 340 stolen bases. Not sure what the problem is, but there definitely is a problem in the accrual of stats by position. I didn't total up the other stats, but suspect there could be some duplication there as well.