Sox Baserunning: Not Good

[Frater Perdurabo]

We've known this for some time. They don't have much speed, and what little speed they do have they don't use well. Now there's a Bill James metric that provides one means of quantifying it with a plus/minus rating.

Check out this Phil Rogers article (http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-081129-phil-rogers-don-baylor-rockies-baseball,0,5071551.column) (salient points are in the third part of the story).

It would be great if someone - anyone - who has a copy of the 2009 Bill James Handbook could explain further into the formula for determining the plus/minus baserunning metric.

I'm not endorsing this article or this means of quantifying team baserunning. I am just raising this topic for discussion.

[JNS]

I saw that piece too. My sense is that is a simple formula where in any of the advances he mentions - scoring from 2nd on a single, 1st to 3rd on a single, etc., is awarded a + point, failure to do so under a set of circumstances gives a - point. Or something like that.

With or without James' analysis, empirically the Sox are an awful base running team. Part of it is just that they are slow, but according to James analysis, pure speed doesn't mean that much; making the most out of what you have is what counts.

In spite of the grief he got and some of the mistakes he made, I think Cox has done a better job than Cora or Shines.

What I don't get is how experienced, intelligent (at least in terms of baseball) guys like AJ get to be so awful.

[Scottiehaswheels]

I like how A.J didn't have a three way tie for 9 outs on the basepaths only because of that interference call on the Rays. :D: