-
Larceny Is No Longer A Virtue
-
This article carefully analyzes how base stealers get a huge advantage against the Mets' Noah Syndergaard because of his long, slow windup (he is, after all, very tall), and in reading it and thinking about Jon Lester's inability to execute a pickoff and how Lester and Syndergaard are nevertheless still among the better pitchers of their time, the thought occurred to me that we still are in an era when the stolen base is more or less irrelevant. Granted, it's hard to get on base against these guys, but when anyone who walks or hits a single is practically handed second base like this and it doesn't matter, and when you consider that the days of Maury Wills and Lou Brock and, for that matter, Rickey Henderson are long gone, and speed on the basepaths isn't valued like it was back then, you have to wonder if stealing bases will ever be a big part of baseball strategy again. (New York Times)
Have an opinion? Add your comment below.