Baserunning woes

[Devizier]

April's now in the books and the Sox are coming off a pretty rough stretch offensively. This is despite torrid performances from Vazquez (in limited plate appearances) and Benintendi. A few players are struggling out the gate (Bradley, Pedroia, Leon) but the team's run production (93 runs scored, 25th in the league) is lagging even its bats (WRC of 104, 16th in the league).

Team power has obviously been a contributor in their early underperformance, but there's something else that's been jumping out while watching the games: shoddy baserunning. Despite being one of the best baserunning teams in the league last year (in terms of Fangraphs' BSR metric), they are one of the worst so far this year. And they are really quite terrible (-6 as of May 1st, ahead of only the Astros). Watching the games (e.g. the almost blown chance to score Hernandez last night) seems to bear this out, too. So what the hell is going on? It seems like Farrell doesn't even like sending guys anymore. Are players like Betts et al. hiding injuries or is it just a fluke of small sample size?

 

[pokey_reese]

Well, part of it is probably usage, but we also don't have any very good base stealers on this team necessarily. As of right now, they are just below average in steal attempts (16, vs. league average of 18.4), but well below average in terms of success rate (62.5% vs. 71.3%). Now, some of those are the result of botched hit-and-runs, pick-offs, etc., but those all count towards bad base running.

I do think it's early, and I don't think that we have been as bad as these overly simple numbers imply, but if JF has seen things that make him feel that we are a below-average base running team, I could see that making him a little less likely to take chances if we don't have to. I'm frankly not sure that I want to see them making more outs on the base paths, for the sake of activity.

 

[dbn]

Don't have a lot to add except that I've heard the NESN guys say that Xander wants to run more this year, yet he has only two attempts thus far. Mookie leads the RS with 3 attempts.
Overall, they are around the middle of the AL pack in SB attempts ,and 10/16, one success shy of being at the AL average for SB%, so too SSS-y to say anything.

 

[CoffeeNerdness]

Interesting to note here that Torey Lovullo's Arizona Diamondbacks lead the MLB with 32 stolen bases. They don't really have a traditional Billy Hamilton type burner leading the way either. Their top-3 is Pollock 10, Owings 7, Goldy 7. I don't watch a ton of the DBacks, but from what I've seen these guys are really good at picking their spots to run. Which also seemed to be a strength of last year's Red Sox team.

 

[AB in DC]

Ironic that this thread was started before Hanley's massive blunder last night.

 

[AB in DC]

Ironic that this thread was started before Hanley's massive blunder last night.

(or today's clusterfuck)

 

[dhappy42]

(or today's clusterfuck)

Stepped out when Hernandez was as thrown out at home tonight. Base-running error or just a bang-bang play?

 

[AB in DC]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2017/05/02/orioles-pull-off-oddest-triple-play-red-sox/101226772/

 

[Hendu At The Wall]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2017/05/02/orioles-pull-off-oddest-triple-play-red-sox/101226772/

We can add not running to first to the list of problems. Bradley was in the dugout when he made the third out.

Should we assume that there was no coaching emphasis on baserunning fundamentals during spring training? And then even after Hanley ran to second without looking at the play in front of him the night before?

 

[HriniakPosterChild]

I wonder if the "two runners on 2nd base" fubar in yesterday game contributed to Pedroia's staying glued to 1st in tonight's.

 

[sheamonu]

I agree the base running has been sub par, I hesitate at citing that triple play as anything other than a freak occurrence. Given how the IFR is sometimes called on balls hit about 250 feet it's hard to see how the runners could have done anything other than stay put. JBJ should've been on first but I'm pretty sure that when he saw Pedey standing there he just assumed he'd been called out and no generalisation is really possible beyond "don't assume".

 

[HriniakPosterChild]

I agree the base running has been sub par, I hesitate at citing that triple play as anything other than a freak occurrence. Given how the IFR is sometimes called on balls hit about 250 feet it's hard to see how the runners could have done anything other than stay put. JBJ should've been on first but I'm pretty sure that when he saw Pedey standing there he just assumed he'd been called out and no generalisation is really possible beyond "don't assume".

The umpires point at the sky and shout when they call the IFR. Pedroia, at least, could have looked at the umpire nearest the ball.

And JBJ could have run through 1st and waited for an umpire to make the "out" sign. Making the 3rd out while inside the dugout is hard to excuse.

 

[BestGameEvah]

Stepped out when Hernandez was as thrown out at home tonight. Base-running error or just a bang-bang play?

It was a contact play.

 

[BestGameEvah]

We can add not running to first to the list of problems. Bradley was in the dugout when he made the third out.

Should we assume that there was no coaching emphasis on baserunning fundamentals during spring training? And then even after Hanley ran to second without looking at the play in front of him the night before?

There was lots of video of Spring training base running. They do it almost daily.
This is the same group that was one of the top base running teams last year.

And, this team was supposed to better this year with a full year of Andrew running and not Papi.
Hanley proved 'sketchy' last year on the bases, kind of a bull in the china shop, with many outs at home of his own doing. Replay of his advance to 2nd on Monday showed his head WAS up but he screwed up anyway. And last night, all seemed to expect IFR....Advance at your own risk could explain why Mooreland held, seemed puzzled on the no call. We've seen that ball called IFR many times, and agree, it was a freak occurrence.

 

[AB in DC]

But here's what I don't get -- are people saying that the runners can never tell if an Infield Fly is called? That they can't hear or see the umps in this situation? Because if so, that's a systemic problem that MLB needs to fix. But if not, that's inexcusable x 3.

 

[HriniakPosterChild]

But here's what I don't get -- are people saying that the runners can never tell if an Infield Fly is called? That they can't hear or see the umps in this situation? Because if so, that's a systemic problem that MLB needs to fix. But if not, that's inexcusable x 3.

The umpires point at the sky and shout when they call the IFR. Pedroia, at least, could have looked at the umpire nearest the ball.

 

[Harry Hooper]

JBJ's night off vs. a RH starter followed the triple play disaster, but apparently not stealth discipline by Farrell.