Too bad that baseball has gotten away from the stolen base as a weapon. I haven't checked the research on the effectiveness of stolen base attempts, but it certainly can do other things to the defense - rattle the pitchers, move the fielders and frustrate the catcher.
As a Cub fan, mentioning Lou Brock is painful. The Cubs of the late 1960s had a strong team and the addition of Brock certainly would have helped them end their World Series hiatus.
Two fellows on a radio show I sometimes listen to claim that "the metrics" show that stolen bases "do not help you win games unless you do it extremely well." No kidding! Anyway, it's now ok in baseball for mediocre hitters to strike out 125 times a year, so they're never on base anyway. But it's silly to ignore the SB as a weapon. Baseball needs more speed merchants who can get on base.
ReplyDelete