Last week’s posts were about things the Phillies used to be great at, outfield defense and outfield offense, and suddenly aren’t. Today’s is about base running — something the Phillies have been great at in recent history, but were just pretty good at in 2012.
Here’s the base running total (runs above average) for the Phillies over the past six years as calculated by FanGraphs and how it compares to the other MLB teams (base running includes stolen bases and caught stealing, while UBR does not):
| Year | Base running | MLB Rank |
| 2007 | 16.0 | 1 |
| 2008 | 17.8 | 1 |
| 2009 | 11.6 | 5 |
| 2010 | 4.4 | 10 |
| 2011 | -1.4 | 15 |
| 2012 | 4.5 | 11 |
So the Phils were best in baseball at the statistic in 2007 and 2008. They had dropped to the middle of the pack in 2011, but came back a little to eleventh across both leagues in 2012.
In 2007, across all players in both leagues, the Phillies had two players in the top 20 in base running. Rollins was second at 11.2 and Victorino was 18th at 6.9.
In 2008, they led the league again in the category with two guys in the top ten. Rollins was third at 10.5 and Victorino ninth at 8.4.
Victorino isn’t on the team anymore, but Jimmy Rollins can’t shoulder much of the blame for the Phillies’s drop from their spot as the best team in baseball in the category. In 2012, Rollins’s 8.3 base running runs above average was second best among all players in baseball, behind only Mike Trout of the Angels.
Juan Pierre appears to be headed to the Marlins on a one-year, $1.6 million deal.
Darin Ruf homered yesterday, giving him ten home runs in 120 at-bats in Venezuela. This article suggests he probably won’t hit ten more to tie the league record, cause he’s headed back to the US later this week and probably won’t return to the league for the second half.
This suggests that BJ Upton, who has already visited the Phillies and Braves, will also visit at least three other teams, which may include the Nationals and Giants. Rotoworld suggests Upton is likely to get about five years and $75 million. If he gets it from the Phillies, let’s hope he proves to be a whole lot better than Shane Victorino, who seems likely to get a lot less than five years, $75 million.
November 19th, 2012 on 9:46 pm
I don’t suppose that losing Lopes is something that Amaro regrets? It was one of those decisions that, along with so many others, seem inconsequential at the time. But the cumulative effect diminishes the ability of the team to excel.
November 19th, 2012 on 9:51 pm
I think the core getting older is probably part of the problem. And Howard has some super ugly base running numbers, even before the injury this year. Mayberry and Brown are bad on the bases, too. Even with all that, the Phillies are still almost in the top third of baseball. Rollins is pretty fantastic on the bases and has been in most recent years.
November 20th, 2012 on 9:49 am
I don’t really think losing Lopes has nearly as much to do with it as a) losing players like Werth who were good on the bases and b) the players that stayed just go older.
November 20th, 2012 on 11:32 am
I’m sure failing to get on base also contributes to failing to create runs on the basepaths.
November 20th, 2012 on 12:15 pm
touche Jim.
November 20th, 2012 on 2:42 pm
I think Victorino was an elite base runner, so losing him hurts. Mayberry and Brown were both bad in 2012 and chances are they will be bad in 2013. So that hurts. Juan Pierre used to be outstanding — in both 2007 and 2010 he was #1 across both leagues. In 2012 his base running was four runs above average as calculated by FanGraphs — that was still good enough for 38th across both leagues.