Stolen Bases and Today's Players
Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 8:54 am
Real baseball and its Managers and players are becoming more and more aware of numbers.
It is virtually automatic to see the closer come in to a game in the 9th inning with the winning team ahead by three runs. Four runs, no. Three runs, yes. The Manager is all too aware that this is a save situation. Even with the 7,8,9 hitters coming up, we see the closer.
It is understandable for Managers to do this on occasion. Closers are like wives, in that the Manager have to live with them. Getting them some easy saves is understandable even though deep down they wish they could go with another member of the bullpen to save some pitches from his best arm.
This all being said, some numbers screamed off the page at me today as I was looking ahead to next year. Maybe, they were contract, agent or ego driven, I don't know.
Go to the stolen base column of players. If we look at the top 46 leaders in stolen bases, we see that 24 of them have a total ending in 0 or 5. 17 of these end with a 0. A nice even number, signifying that players do like their even numbers. From Jacoby Ellsbury's major league leading 70, to Crawford's 60, down to a plethora of players at 20 stolen bases.
Of the top 46, there are zero players ending with a 9, there are zero ending with an 8. It shows what a personal category this has become.
The top 46 includes all with at least 20 stolen bases. There are only three players who ended with 19 bases stolen. Nate McLouth, Julio Borbon, and Kaz Matsui. They ended at 19, but not for lack of trying. Borbon was caught stealing on the last day of the season. McLouth on the second to the last day of the season. Matsui, bucking the trend, did not attempt a stolen base during the last week.
I really don't know what to take from this as a fantasy player. It does lend credence to the fact that players are numbers driven and know those numbers, even though before a camera they will say otherwise.
Back in the day, I loved owning Alfonzo Soriano. I had a friend of a friend who knew him and Soriano knew every one of his numbers and would try and improve on one or another each day. Just the right guy for fantasy baseball. Afterall, he cared about his numbers as much as his fantasy owners. Maybe more players are following this path.
[ October 20, 2009, 02:56 PM: Message edited by: DOUGHBOYS ]
It is virtually automatic to see the closer come in to a game in the 9th inning with the winning team ahead by three runs. Four runs, no. Three runs, yes. The Manager is all too aware that this is a save situation. Even with the 7,8,9 hitters coming up, we see the closer.
It is understandable for Managers to do this on occasion. Closers are like wives, in that the Manager have to live with them. Getting them some easy saves is understandable even though deep down they wish they could go with another member of the bullpen to save some pitches from his best arm.
This all being said, some numbers screamed off the page at me today as I was looking ahead to next year. Maybe, they were contract, agent or ego driven, I don't know.
Go to the stolen base column of players. If we look at the top 46 leaders in stolen bases, we see that 24 of them have a total ending in 0 or 5. 17 of these end with a 0. A nice even number, signifying that players do like their even numbers. From Jacoby Ellsbury's major league leading 70, to Crawford's 60, down to a plethora of players at 20 stolen bases.
Of the top 46, there are zero players ending with a 9, there are zero ending with an 8. It shows what a personal category this has become.
The top 46 includes all with at least 20 stolen bases. There are only three players who ended with 19 bases stolen. Nate McLouth, Julio Borbon, and Kaz Matsui. They ended at 19, but not for lack of trying. Borbon was caught stealing on the last day of the season. McLouth on the second to the last day of the season. Matsui, bucking the trend, did not attempt a stolen base during the last week.
I really don't know what to take from this as a fantasy player. It does lend credence to the fact that players are numbers driven and know those numbers, even though before a camera they will say otherwise.
Back in the day, I loved owning Alfonzo Soriano. I had a friend of a friend who knew him and Soriano knew every one of his numbers and would try and improve on one or another each day. Just the right guy for fantasy baseball. Afterall, he cared about his numbers as much as his fantasy owners. Maybe more players are following this path.
[ October 20, 2009, 02:56 PM: Message edited by: DOUGHBOYS ]