Posted July 6, 200420 yr That JP had a stolen base last night but the base he stole was 3rd, a lot of the time a player attempts to steal 3rd without being given any sign by a manager and i suspect this was the case here. McKeon just seems to be too conservative with the base running. Sure, we have lost three guys (Encar..., Pudge, Lee) who could steal bases but that doesn't mean we stop it entirely, especially with JP and Luis, two of the fastest players in the league.
July 6, 200420 yr jack has said before that he usually likes to leave the basestealing decisions up to the player... i would think an oft-checked-on JP is to blame for his own conservatism this season.
July 6, 200420 yr I would also blame Pierre's very short leadoff from 1st. At second, he had a totally different lead - and it was much longer - and he beat the throw from a very good defensive catcher, Kendall, by a mile. 3B is the hardest to steal (other than home, just ask Sea Bass) and he beat it out easily. That is a sign that he still has it, which some insanely have questioned, but it is about his fundamentals. He needs to get a bigger lead at 1B. But his ego may be getting the best of him there.
July 7, 200420 yr JP is no doubt the man i want on the basebath in the bottom of the ninth i take him any day over podsednick n crawford not cause ima marlin fan cuase he showd us he can run in timely situatuions and hes a team player who doesnt steal to see his name in the paper tomm morning he soes it so he can win and no butts about it hes a winner
July 7, 200420 yr Talking about stealing bases, somebody has to work with Treanor on throwing guys out. Everybody runs on him.
July 7, 200420 yr Treanor, Luis, and Sea Bass need to spend more time getting know how they react to each other in that role.
July 7, 200420 yr I think Mikey's SB tonight was a jump start to the O. They see Sr. Marlin out there busting his ass and they decided to do the same.
July 7, 200420 yr Talking about stealing bases, somebody has to work with Treanor on throwing guys out. Everybody runs on him. 444814[/snapback] I agree with CapeFish. It's not entirely on Treanor's shoulders, because I've seen the guy warm up with Dontrelle in the outfield and he has a cannon of an arm -- more so than Redmond does. IMO it's a matter of coordination and getting a feel for it. I predict that after the All-Star break, we'll see Treanor gunning guys down left and right (and up and down... diagonally too).
July 7, 200420 yr I'm not sure how many SB attempts there were tonight because I didn't see the whole game, but I did catch one and Treanor got the throw off extremely quick and strong. The runner was safe, but it may have been Castillo's fault (or Alex's, I forget)
July 7, 200420 yr Talking about stealing bases, somebody has to work with Treanor on throwing guys out. Everybody runs on him. 444814[/snapback] I agree with CapeFish. It's not entirely on Treanor's shoulders, because I've seen the guy warm up with Dontrelle in the outfield and he has a cannon of an arm -- more so than Redmond does. IMO it's a matter of coordination and getting a feel for it. I predict that after the All-Star break, we'll see Treanor gunning guys down left and right (and up and down... diagonally too). 444893[/snapback] Yeah, Treanor has an anti-aircraft gun mounted up there on his right shoulder. He has a better arm than a big chunk of our pitching staff, to be honest. He gets the throws to second in a hurry, usually it's unfamiliarity because Sea Bass and Luiy always seem to be out of place when the ball gets there.
July 7, 200420 yr Talking about stealing bases, somebody has to work with Treanor on throwing guys out. Everybody runs on him. 444814[/snapback] Two bases were stolen on him last night if I remember correctly. One of them hit the base runner in the head... perfect location, but slightly late. The other actually was a perfect strike, but Luis caught the ball behind second base and attempted to apply the tag, rather than stepping up and catching the ball in front of second base (or even better, right at second base)... Luis' fault. Treanor hasn't been getting the breaks catchers need, as well as the support. Pitchers haven't been holding baserunners very well, period. Furthermore, the steals are often times coming on breaking pitches. My point is that catching a base stealer is a team effort. Treanor does have a problem with his release. He cocks the ball back and it just stays there for about a half of a second. Not good... But I wouldn't judge his overall ability to catch base stealers by his performance last night, nor by his season caught stealing %... 1 of 8 caught. But with all that said, let me say that if there is any one stat in baseball that is misleading, it's a catchers caught stealing percentage. For example, Mike Redmond has caught 13 of 42 would-be base stealers this year (30.95%). Pudge has caught 6 of 27 (22.22%). Redmond has better numbers, even though we KNOW that Pudge is a better catcher defensively. So let's dig a little deeper. More people have attempted steals on Redmond than Pudge. The difference lies in the fact that weaker base runners will attempt stealing on Red than on Pudge (duh), thus puffing Red's numbers when compared to Pudge. Pudge only has to deal with those that are actually good enough to even attempt a steal against him, thus, Pudge is dealing with the best of the best: of course his numbers are going to be lower! What we should be looking at is steals per inning. That's a stat that would make more sense. Steals per inning: Pudge: 21 steals in 563 innings = .037 steals per innning (CS% 22.22) Redmond: 29 steals in 412 innings = .070 steals per inning (CS% 30.95) Treanor: 7 steals in 90 innnings = .077 steals per inning (CS% 12.50) And the biggest shocker... Ramon Castro: 9 steals in 243 innings = .037 steals per innning (CS% 35.71) Castro has better numbers than even Pudge :mischief2 . That should be the bottom line. Of course there are other factors to consider, like what the score in the games were, the teams the catcher is was up against, the closeness of the games, etc. But, clearly, an argument could be made that steals/inning is a more effecient stat in judging a catcher's defensive contribution than CS% is. Oh, just for fun... 1999 - 2004 Mike Piazza: 545 steals in 5085.1 innings = .107 steals per inning (CS% 22.47, better than Pudge's numbers this year... :shifty ) That's an average of about a steal per game over a 6 year period! Yuck! Ultimately, we just have to look at the catcher and make up our minds about him. The current numbers we use just don't do great defensive catchers justice. The comments some have made about looking at Treanor and just seeing that he throws hard and accurately may be the most efficient way of assessing a catcher's ability.
July 7, 200420 yr The only problem with Pudge's CS numbers this year is that he catches Jason Johnson and Jeremy Bonderman. They were the 2 easiest pitchers to steal off of in the AL last year, allowing a combined 57 stolen bases in their starts (and Johnson was with the Orioles last year, so it wasn't our catcher). The problem is teams are for the most part only running on Pudge when these 2 are on the mound. And teams get such good leads off of these 2 pitchers, because they are so slow to the plate, that he really doesn't have a chance to throw a lot of the basestealers out.
July 7, 200420 yr The only problem with Pudge's CS numbers this year is that he catches Jason Johnson and Jeremy Bonderman. They were the 2 easiest pitchers to steal off of in the AL last year, allowing a combined 57 stolen bases in their starts (and Johnson was with the Orioles last year, so it wasn't our catcher). The problem is teams are for the most part only running on Pudge when these 2 are on the mound. And teams get such good leads off of these 2 pitchers, because they are so slow to the plate, that he really doesn't have a chance to throw a lot of the basestealers out. 445077[/snapback] Exactly my point... thanks for the insight...
July 7, 200420 yr The only problem with Pudge's CS numbers this year is that he catches Jason Johnson and Jeremy Bonderman. They were the 2 easiest pitchers to steal off of in the AL last year, allowing a combined 57 stolen bases in their starts (and Johnson was with the Orioles last year, so it wasn't our catcher). The problem is teams are for the most part only running on Pudge when these 2 are on the mound. And teams get such good leads off of these 2 pitchers, because they are so slow to the plate, that he really doesn't have a chance to throw a lot of the basestealers out. 445077[/snapback] I had a feeling it was something along those lines
July 7, 200420 yr Louie and Pierre have the GO sign whenever they want. Also pierre saw that the pitchers werent using the Slide Step against him last night and he took advantage.
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