Sunday, February 03, 2008

Best base runners in baseball - 2007

This is the sixth part of my series on base running in 2007. The table of contents for the entire series is listed below.

Taking the extra base
The ground game
On the fly
Stolen bases, etc.
Who was the best Tigers base runner?
Best base runners in baseball

In my analysis of the Tigers, I concluded that Curtis Granderson was the best base runner on the team in 2007. That is, he netted more bases by taking the extra base on hits and by advancing on ground outs, air outs, stolen bases and other plays than any player on the team last year.

Who was the best base runner in the American League? According to the statistics in Table 1 below, it was Jason Bartlett (35.6 bases gained above average) followed by Ian Kinsler (34.0), Johnny Damon (33.6), Grady Sizemore (33.6) and Coco Crisp (32.1). The only Tiger in the top 25 was Granderson (13th). The development of the statistics in the table is discussed in the articles linked above in the table of contents.

The National League leaders are listed in Table 2 below. The top base runner in the NL and also in the Majors was Jose Reyes (46.4 bases gained above average). Next in line were Juan Pierre (44.9), Kaz Matsui (35.1), Jimmy Rollins (31.2) and Eric Byrnes (29.9).

The information used here was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by
Retrosheet. Interested parties may contact Retrosheet at "www.retrosheet.org".


Table 1: American League Bases Gained Leaders in 2006

Player

Team

BG Hits

BGAA Hits

BG Ground

BGAA Ground

BG Air

BGAA Air

BG Other

BGAA Other

BG Total

BGAA Total

Bartlett

MIN

34.0

14.4

24.0

8.7

7.0

3.4

17.5

9.2

82.5

35.6

Kinsler

TEX

27.0

8.5

19.0

4.8

8.0

3.9

24.1

16.8

78.1

34.0

Damon

NYA

29.0

3.7

18.0

2.3

20.0

12.3

23.8

15.3

90.8

33.6

Sizemore

CLE

34.0

14.8

18.0

1.1

14.0

5.7

22.4

12.0

88.4

33.6

Crisp

BOS

21.0

1.8

22.0

8.2

14.0

7.9

22.6

14.2

79.6

32.1

Crawford

TBA

23.0

4.5

6.0

-4.0

18.0

8.9

30.4

21.5

77.4

30.9

Rodriguez

NYA

35.0

11.8

13.0

2.7

10.0

2.5

21.5

11.1

79.5

28.1

Figgins

ANA

35.0

14.3

14.0

2.1

7.0

0.7

18.1

10.3

74.1

27.5

Owens

CHA

16.0

6.0

13.0

5.0

8.0

5.0

12.7

7.6

49.7

23.5

Suzuki

SEA

42.0

11.4

15.0

-7.2

8.0

-3.3

33.3

21.3

98.3

22.1

Roberts

BAL

29.0

6.9

26.0

-0.8

0.0

-6.7

32.7

22.4

87.7

21.8

Cabrera

ANA

35.0

9.4

11.0

0.3

9.0

2.3

19.2

9.3

74.2

21.2

Granderson

DET

26.0

-2.5

21.0

4.1

11.0

-0.3

28.1

19.2

86.1

20.5

Rios

TOR

30.0

9.3

15.0

1.6

9.0

2.9

15.2

5.8

69.2

19.7

Matthews

ANA

29.0

11.5

8.0

0.7

5.0

0.3

14.2

6.9

56.2

19.5

Patterson

BAL

22.0

7.8

4.0

-4.0

2.0

-2.5

23.3

17.0

51.3

18.2

Upton

TBA

23.0

7.0

10.0

0.8

8.0

4.2

11.7

3.8

52.7

15.7

Barfield

CLE

14.0

2.6

9.0

2.1

8.0

3.5

12.2

6.9

43.2

15.2

Swisher

OAK

25.0

6.1

9.0

4.0

8.0

4.4

9.4

0.3

51.4

14.8

DeJesus

KCA

29.0

6.2

18.0

-1.9

9.0

1.5

17.8

8.3

73.8

14.1

Brown

KCA

13.0

5.2

5.0

0.0

5.0

0.9

12.4

7.4

35.4

13.5

Lugo

BOS

17.0

-1.5

12.0

2.0

9.0

2.3

18.0

10.1

56.0

12.9

Castillo

MIN

18.0

2.7

17.0

3.2

6.0

0.9

10.8

5.1

51.8

11.9

Gomes

TBA

8.0

1.9

12.0

4.3

4.0

-0.1

9.8

5.2

33.8

11.4

Mauer

MIN

17.0

2.0

5.0

-4.6

7.0

3.2

16.7

9.7

45.7

10.3



Table 2: National League Bases Gained Leaders in 2007

Player

Team

BG Hits

BGAA Hits

BG Ground

BGAA Ground

BG Air

BGAA Air

BG Other

BGAA Other

BG Total

BGAA Total

Reyes

NYN

29.0

10.5

37.0

13.2

13.0

5.1

28.3

17.5

107.3

46.4

Pierre

LAN

44.0

13.4

18.0

3.4

14.0

6.9

31.3

21.2

107.3

44.9

Matsui

COL

25.0

8.6

7.0

-1.4

11.0

4.7

29.5

23.2

72.5

35.1

Rollins

PHI

34.0

13.3

13.0

-1.9

13.0

2.5

27.3

17.4

87.3

31.2

Byrnes

ARI

21.0

6.4

15.0

-0.7

7.0

1.9

31.7

22.3

74.7

29.9

Roberts

SFN

17.0

2.4

25.0

9.3

8.0

1.3

21.9

16.0

71.9

29.0

Furcal

LAN

27.0

3.1

33.0

12.7

15.0

6.5

15.2

6.5

90.2

28.8

Victorino

PHI

16.0

0.3

10.0

3.5

7.0

0.9

29.9

22.8

62.9

27.5

Beltran

NYN

21.0

2.5

5.0

-2.7

16.0

7.7

25.4

17.5

67.4

25.0

Giles

SDN

25.0

10.4

12.0

1.7

11.0

5.3

11.1

5.1

59.1

22.5

Hart

MIL

14.0

4.4

14.0

3.3

13.0

8.1

13.9

6.4

54.9

22.2

Wright

NYN

28.0

9.1

10.0

-1.1

6.0

-0.3

24.9

14.0

68.9

21.8

Utley

PHI

26.0

8.5

12.0

3.2

6.0

0.7

17.7

8.5

61.7

21.0

Taveras

COL

20.0

6.8

7.0

-2.2

15.0

8.5

13.7

7.6

55.7

20.7

McLouth

PIT

11.0

1.0

13.0

3.8

3.0

-0.8

19.4

14.6

46.4

18.6

Ramirez

FLO

19.0

0.5

11.0

-0.9

16.0

7.5

21.2

11.3

67.2

18.4

Logan

WAS

9.0

0.8

14.0

2.9

9.0

5.8

11.2

6.6

43.2

16.1

Weeks

MIL

22.0

6.7

5.0

-6.9

3.0

-3.9

27.1

19.8

57.1

15.8

Davis

PIT/SFN

10.0

3.2

9.0

2.1

3.0

-1.7

15.2

11.9

37.2

15.6

Cameron

SDN

34.0

14.1

5.0

-3.0

6.0

1.7

10.2

2.3

55.2

15.0

Rowand

PHI

26.0

4.6

22.0

9.0

8.0

4.8

6.1

-3.5

62.1

14.8

Holliday

COL

32.0

8.8

9.0

-2.5

19.0

8.5

9.8

-0.7

69.8

14.1

Miles

SLN

23.0

5.5

20.0

8.5

5.0

-0.7

6.7

0.5

54.7

13.9

Renteria

ATL

25.0

6.5

9.0

-1.0

8.0

2.3

14.4

6.0

56.4

13.8

Ausmus

HOU

9.0

0.5

30.0

13.9

1.0

-0.6

4.7

-0.4

44.7

13.3

1 comment:

  1. I don't know if this has been pointed out already, but the Tigers don't play the Red Sox or the Yankees after May 11. Of course this means a difficult first 1.5 months. If they can get past the first 1.5 mos even slightly above .500, they should be in good shape.

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