Bigger Ballparks Means More Running
Jeff Pearlman wrote an article about spring training and got the following worthy quotation.
Why aren’t teams running like they used to?
“Ballparks are way too small,” he says. “Built for power.”
Teams are not only running as much as in the past, but they’re getting much smarter about being successful. Last year, the NL teams ran 2029 times and were successful 73% of the time. The AL ran 1805 times but were successful 73.0% of the time as well. There were 7 teams in all of MLB that stole over 120 SB.
While only 9 players stole over 40 bases on the year, players were much smarter overall. Grady Sizemore stole 38 of 43, Jayson Werth stole 20 of 21, Dustin Pedroia stole 20 of 21, and Michael Young stole only 10 bases but wasn’t thrown out once. So while there may not be that one guy who steals 80-90 bases, teams are spreading it out so that three or four players can maximize on 20 chances as opposed to one guy trying to maximize on 100 chances.
1966: Averaged 119 SBA per team
1967: Averaged 116 SBA per team
2007: Averaged 131 SBA per team
2008: Averaged 128 SBA per team
