Comments on: Never slow down, never grow old and losing Bourn and Werth probably won’t help much either

By: egrissom

egrissom — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:59:21 +0000

How bout the Not Tryin’ To Steal So Much Anymore Hawaiian?

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:49:45 +0000

Just don’t call him the Dyin’ Hawaiian.

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:09:13 +0000

It just seemed as though he had more confidence with Lopes around. He stole a lot of bases in the minors, but he was caught a lot too. His success rates are nearly 10% better (~70% vs. ~ 80%) in the majors, which would seem counter-intuitive in most cases.

At any rate, I also think his high stolen base days are gone no matter who is coaching first.

By: egrissom

egrissom — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:52:55 +0000

Greg Golson is a little tough for me to look at, too.

I don’t think there’s any question that the Lopes years, 2007-2010, have been the best stolen base years for Victorino so far. I really think it’s hard to know how big a factor Lopes was in that, though. Victorino was always crazy fast, stealing 40 bases in a minor league season twice before he was 22. He just didn’t run with the Phils when he came up in 2006 when he stole just four bases, then took off in ’07 with 37. I would guess his days of stealing 35 bags are gone, but we’ll have to wait and see.

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:06:08 +0000

I could’ve lived without the Rod Barajas reference while eating my lunch today. Couldn’t you have put “misc. catcher” in that column or something?

I think Lopes had his biggest effect on Vic. His rates seem to rise and fall much in line with Lopes being around and not.

By: egrissom

egrissom — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:07:38 +0000

As a Domonic Brown fan, I’m hoping that when they make you the GM of the Phils you give your manager a lot of room when selecting his outfielders. I kinda miss Lopes, too.

By: DaMannse

DaMannse — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:58:44 +0000

Yup. Most phenomena have multiple causes. This is one of them. The injury factor, taking elite players out of the game and replacing them with second line players, has to hurt in more ways than merely batting. Age certainly slows every human; all the evidence I need to have for that is to try to out run my nephew.
I just miss Davey Lopes. The Phillies do too, I am thinking. We should have spent the money. Oh well. I am sure that when I am the Phillies’ GM we will win 5 Series in a row.

By: egrissom

egrissom — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:38:56 +0000

I definitely think it’s possible. I don’t think the change could have helped. At the same time, I would guess the aging of the primary base-stealers is a bigger factor. I think another thing is that Rollins, one of the biggest contributors in the category, has missed significant time due to injury over the past two seasons. In 2010 he got less than 400 plate appearances. Last year he got a lot more than that, but was still just at 631. From 2001 through 2009 he got at least 700 in seven of nine seasons.

By: DaMannse

DaMannse — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:32:50 +0000

It may also be possible that a certain coaching change at first base has not helped.