Bluejays Finished Ahead Of Boston in 06. What Happened Thi..

They are 14 1/2 games behind the Red Sox, and 7 games behind the Yankees
(who actually have a better team than the Sox).

One important dimension the Sox and Yankees have, which the Jays are
lacking, is
speed. The Jays have only one blazing speedster and that is Alex Rios.
Johnson, Wells,
Adams, Olmeda and Hill have pretty-good speed but are no real baserunning
threats.
In contrast the Red Sox have Coco Crisp, Hulio Lugo, Cora, their rookie
second baseman
(whose name escapes me, and their so-far sensational rook left fielder. The
Red Sox used to
be all power, no speed. Not anymore.

Why is speed important for a baseball team? Well, a very successful and
higly- respected
ML manager once said, "I would always take speed over power because speed
never goes into a slump".

Both are important. But here is why speed is a necessity. A very fast runner
at bat puts added pressure
on the opposing pitcher, catcher and the entire infield. They worry if the
batter will bunt, or hit a ground ball in the
infield and beat the throw. This pressure can, and does, cause errors, some
of which are critical.

A blazing speedster on first base worries the pitcher and catcher as he is a
threat to steal. And we have seen
many times a speedster like Rios turn a single into a double just through
speed. On second base a very fast
runner can often score on a single which an average runner cannot do. On
third a speedy runner can get
home safely on a sacrifice fly ball which is not hit that deep.

Defensively, other things being equal, a player with excellent speed has
more range and thus can make
more plays.

In their scouting and drafting the Jays organization seems to have ignored
speed and recently they have
paid a price for this. They currently have, I believe, the worst or second
worst record for stolen bases in
MLB.







--
"Moral nihilism is not the only central
feature of National Socialism, but also
the common feature between it and
Marxism".--scholar Hugh Seton-Watson.

Clay Northwood <Northwood RemoveThis @northwood.com> says:

>Why is speed important for a baseball team? Well, a very successful
>and higly- respected ML manager once said, "I would always take
>speed over power because speed never goes into a slump".

>Both are important. But here is why speed is a necessity. A very
>fast runner at bat puts added pressure on the opposing pitcher,
>catcher and the entire infield. They worry if the batter will bunt,
>or hit a ground ball in the infield and beat the throw. This
>pressure can, and does, cause errors, some of which are critical.

The obvious difference between speed and power is that speed
contributes to all aspects of the game, both defensively and
offensively.

Nonetheless, the standard Earl Weaver, statfan mantra, is you get
guys on base. You don't risk losing them on steals or pickoffs.
Then you look for the home run.

>A blazing speedster on first base worries the pitcher and catcher
>as he is a threat to steal. And we have seen many times a speedster
>like Rios turn a single into a double just through speed. On second
>base a very fast runner can often score on a single which an
>average runner cannot do. On third a speedy runner can get home
>safely on a sacrifice fly ball which is not hit that deep.

Most people who have studied the matter think that the speed
contributes less to offense than you might think. This ain't the
minors - MLB players don't get rattled very often just because
Rickey Henderson is on first.

>Defensively, other things being equal, a player with excellent
>speed has more range and thus can make more plays.

Obviously.

>In their scouting and drafting the Jays organization seems to have
>ignored speed and recently they have paid a price for this. They
>currently have, I believe, the worst or second worst record for
>stolen bases in MLB.

The Jays do not do scouting. Ricky Riccardo believes that actually
watching a prospect could prejudice a scout, so his scouting is done
with the spreadsheet. And that is why he has the worst minor league
system, by far, of all the big market teams.

cordially, as always,

rm