Don't look now Braves fans

[Dawg61]

I could care less about the stolen bases, and his 42 runs scored are because he has Todd Frazier and Freddie Freeman hitting behind him.

I've noticed. Not comparing about how many stolen bases he has is the same thing as saying I don't care how many times he leads of an inning with a double or triple because every time he steals second and/or third he got exactly the same thing as a double or triple. Your hatred towards speed is strange. Do you also hate basketball players that are tall and can jump out the gym or quarterbacks that can throw the ball 80 yards and hit a dime?

[Dawg61]

Kyle Wren stole home tonight for Mississippi. Now this is a player whose speed is actually a weapon because of his on base ability. Kyle has a career .381 OBP in the minors to this point. He's at about 81% on his stolen base percentage. He doesn't strike out a lot and walks at a solid rate.

Comparing minor league stats? Really? Billy Hamilton had 155 SB in one year the same year he had a .410 OBP. But yea Kyle Wren is better than him. Haha

[smootness]

Carlos Tosca already making better managerial decisions than Fredi. Fredi's idea of a defensive replacement late in the game is to pull Tommy La Stella out of the game when he is not a defensive liability. In the process, he leaves the guy who is a defensive liability in the game in Chris Johnson. Tonight, when Carlos subbed Pena in for defensive purposes, he pulled Johnson, not La Stella.

Carlos Tosca for manager!!

He also correctly identified when Shae Simmons's command was waning, even though Shae struck out the batter. Bethancourt had just set up on the outside part of the plate to a left handed hitter, and Shae's slider bit hard to the inside corner of the plate.

I'm cool with that.

[Pioneer Dawg]

Are pickoffs included in "caught stealings"? I watched Bumgarner and Lincecum pick off Hamilton 3 times a few weeks ago. He's a rookie and the veteran pitchers are owning him a little with their pickoff moves right now. He will learn every one of their moves going forward.

If he is picked off going back to the bag then its not a CS. If he's picked off and takes off to 2nd where he gets out it IS a CS.

[Pioneer Dawg]

Hamilton should spend any extra time picking Votto's brain. His 4% BB rate just ain't cutting it. He has shown the ability in 2012 but fell off last year and even worse now.

He is a good baserunner and not just because of his steals

[Dawg61]

If he is picked off going back to the bag then its not a CS. If he's picked off and takes off to 2nd where he gets out it IS a CS.

Ok almost all of those are going to be CS then because on first movement he is gone. Not going back to the bag. So those 12 CS are probably more like 5-6 catcher throwing out and 5-6 picked off.

[Todd4State]

Honestly, I don't see the transition. It's always been a traditional baseball strategy to put a speed guy at the lead off spot, and I don't think the majority of baseball has bought into putting the high on base guy at the lead off spot.

I think the problem with offense is just the opposite. Players do not know how to work the count, they are too aggressive and over swing, and there is too much reliance upon power to score.

Until recently there have been fewer Vince Coleman types than ever. Managers almost have had no choice but to put a non-traditional lead off hitter at the top. I'm starting to see more Billy Hamilton types in the minors. There aren't a lot out there yet, but I think it's starting. I think there is a fallacy about trying to tie speed and OBP together for whatever reason, and they're totally separate things. You can have a guy that has a high OPB and steals a lot of bases. I think that's what MLB managers really want. Think Ichiro in his prime. Matt Carpenter's OBP is really good- and that's great- but if he could steal 50 bases along with that high OBP, you're talking about a guy going from maybe good All-Star type of player to maybe a guy that could be considered one of the best second basemen ever if the Cardinals made a trade and moved him back there.

On the hitting round table thing I watched on MLB Network, they talked about how hitters are taking more pitches than ever, and they had a graphic that backed it up. That said, I do think that you are correct in that hitters don't know how to work the count and overswing- or take the wrong approach. You see guys with a 1-2 count swing as hard as they can. I very rarely see anyone in MLB shorten their swing and try to go opposite field with two strikes. These pitchers know what these hitters are being told to do, and if they know that a guy is going to take pitches, they're just going to go ahead and throw two strikes to get ahead and then make you hit whatever their out pitch is.