Stolen Goods: The Value Of A Good Farm System

Sky Andrecheck over at The Baseball Analysts has a great piece up regarding the importance and impact of a good farm system on a team's future success. The article contains the following chart.

Interesting stuff. Makes me wish the Cubs had a real farm system.

Stupid DME thinks Braun can't run the bases

In the Chase Utley comments section, DME proclaimed that Ryan Braun is a horrible baserunner ranking 9th on his own team last season. He points to some stat called EQBRR on BP, which seems reasonable after checking it over, though i still dont know how it is calculated exactly. The baseball analysts did a preview of Bill James Baseball Abstract for 2010

Before listing the best and worst baserunners by position, James compares Chone "Gone" Figgins (23-for-43 going from first-to-third on a single and 26-for-31 second-to-home on a single) with Prince Fielder (1-for-45 first-to-third on a single) and David Ortiz (2-for-16 second-to-home on a single), Emilio Bonafacio (10-for-10 first-to-home on a double) with Mike Lowell (0-for-10), and Denard Span (moved up a base 31 times on a WP, PB, Balk, SF, or Defensive Indifference) with Geoff Blum (never advanced a base on any of those plays).

	BEST				WORST
C	Kurt Suzuki	+15		C	Yadier Molina	-26
1B	Carlos Pena	+9		1B	Adrian Gonzalez	-29
2B	Chase Utley	+50		2B	Robinson Cano	-23
3B	Chone Figgins	+35		3B	Mike Lowell	-27
SS	Jason Bartlett	+30		SS	Yuniesky Betancourt	-28
LF	Ryan Braun	+35		LF	Juan Rivera	-40
CF	Michael Bourn	+55		CF	Kosuke Fukudome	-11
RF	Ichiro Suzuki	+32		RF	Gabe Kapler	-19

Most people will tell you that we should have Carl Crawford in left field ahead of Ryan Braun, and people will tell you that Yadier Molina actually runs well for a catcher, or at least for a Molina. We don't base this on reputation. Carl Crawford was 8-for-27 going first-to-third on a single. Ryan Braun was 15-for-41, which is better. Crawford was 4-for-9 scoring from first on a double. Braun was 7-for-9. Crawford moved up 24 bases on Wild Pitches, Passed Balls, Balks, Sacrifice Flies and Defensive Indifference. Braun moved up 26 times. Crawford grounded into 7 double plays in 136 DP situations; Braun grounded into 7 in 172 situations. Braun was thrown out 5 times on the bases. Crawford was thrown out 10. Crawford is a very good baserunner—the second-best baserunner among major league left fielders in 2009, including his base stealing—but Braun was better. And Yadi Molina grounded into 27 frigging double plays, which is a record even for a Molina brother.

As James points out, "the difference between the best baserunner in the majors (Michael Bourn) and the worst (Juan Rivera) was 95 bases, or about 24 runs" [editor's note: equal to about 2 1/2 wins].

Strikeouts, Groundballs and Vertical Location of Pitches

The Baseball Analysts did some number crunching and definitely proved that there is an inverse relationship between strikeouts and groundballs in proportion to the location of pitches in the zone.

Check it out if you're interested. TBA has cool stuff.