It’s kinda funny, the Giants stole more bases last season than they had in a long time. But, the team was pretty poor in overall baserunning ability. We were 6th in the NL for SBs.

I think that was just an instance of blatant homerism. I want so badly to believe the Giants are good at something offensively, anything really, that I project those desires on to them. But now that i think about it, there is absolutely no reason to think the Giants have been any good on the basepaths in recent memory.

Sigh.

I’m interested to wonder why you think the Giants have been one of the better teams over the last few years at baserunning? When I think about the past Giants teams, I usually envision plodding slow types.

BP has a team report, which you can read here:

http://baseballprospectus.com/statistics/sortable/index.php?cid=421677

The Giants were the worst at baserunning in 2008, collectively they were -26 runs below average for running the bases. The Mets were 1st at the opposite end of the spectrum with a +26 run score. The Phillies were 5th best in baseball.

In 07, the Giants were more middle of the pack with a score of -0.17 runs, that’s good for 16th in the majors. It’s kind of funny, with SPEED and GAMER HUSTLE they actually ran the bases worse this past season.

Having one of the worst baserunners in history (Molina) probably isn’t helping the team numbers, but Rowand also scored poorly.

As for this:

>>I’m personally still not convinced. There seems to be a relatively low limit to how much baserunning alone can contribute to wins

You’re right, baserunning by itself isn’t going to add an extreme amount to a players total unless they are Ichiro (the very best) or Bengie Molina (the very worst). Most guys see a plus or minus of a couple of runs. But for some players like Ichiro or, since this is a Giants website, Fred Lewis, they are seeing some positives added that might otherwise be overlooked.

My guess is, the Giants have been one of the best baserunning teams in all of baseball the last few years, no? The Phillies and Mets also come to mind.

Does this make us any more willing to buy into the whole small-ball philosophy Sabean and Bochy have been trying to sell us?

I’m personally still not convinced. There seems to be a relatively low limit to how much baserunning alone can contribute to wins. But I don’t know. Maybe a team of 8 Randy Winns is just as effective as a team of 8, let’s say, Adam Dunn’s.

And I liked Rajai Davis. I was sorry to see him go. For a brief time in 2007, he was about the most exciting part of Giants games. Which is a sad commentary on the 2007 Giants, of course.