rembrat said:
People keep saying this but he is not. He really is not a decent baserunner. He is awful. Just because he can get to 3B on a ball he crushes does not make him a good baserunner. He has been thrown out many a times, in big spots, trying to stretch singles into doubles. How is this forgotten?
And as to your first point. I have no problem with a pitcher being asked to run. Being asked to do something you have never done before is a large part of any job.
Okay, I'm looking for stats to either refute or support this. My eyes have told me in the past that he's faster than seems like he should be, and he's stoled a couple of bases lately by taking advantage of sleeping infielders/pitchers.
However, here's what I can find for stats:
Taking
just 2011 data, his last full season, Ortiz was "out on base" just six times, which ties him with a number of players for 66th most in 2011. It's also the league average for 600 PA. The leaders include Cabrera, Tulo, Pujols, and others you expect to be on base a lot and hitting extra base hits. Ortiz is notably lower than them, despite being a similar kind of hitter.
However, he also had only 11 bases taken, meaning capitalizing on passed balls, etc., which puts him in a tie for 137th. Notable others tied with him include Holliday, Jay Bruce, Hamilton, Uggla, and Prado. Leaders had 30+, with some speedy guys like Furcal and Andrus in there. Jacoby had 21.
His extra bases taken percentage is just 25 (going first to third, scoring from first on a double, etc.), which is also pretty bad. Teixeira is right there with him, but also Jhonny Peralta, who seems like he shouldn't be that slow. The leaders, players like Brendan Ryan and Chase Utley are in the 70s, which seems like some serious added value I've never really look at before, while the league average at 600 PAs is 41 percent.
Finally, there is the very raw run-scored percentage, which is simply a measure of how often a player scores when actually on base. This obviously is affected by the rest of the lineup pretty significantly, but it may be worth noting that Ortiz is at 26 percent, which is again in a dead tie with Teixeira and Peralta. League average is 30 percent.
So, it may depend on your definition of "decent," but I think you can make the case that he's just about slightly below average and in line with other "sluggers."
"Awful" seems to be really overstating matters. Awful is Brian McCann taking the extra base 15 percent of the time and having only 1 base taken in 550 PAs. Awful is Paul Konerko only scoring 18 percent of the time on a decent White Sox club.
And you could maybe argue that the Sox' 22 outs at home, 3 more than the next closest, is awful, but their Run Scored percentage is 3rd in MLB at 32 percent, so maybe it's working for them...