Daily Notes: Stolen Bases Converted into Distance
Table of Contents
The following is the table of contents for today’s Daily Notes.
1. Regarding Who the Heck the Author Is
2. Regarding to What the Author is Listening
3. Rickey Henderson’s Base Stealing, Converted to Distance
4. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
5. Today’s Complete Schedule
Regarding Who the Heck the Author Is
The present author is David G Temple, i.e. me. I’m usually a contributor to NotGraphs, however Mr. Cistulli has trusted me with presenting the Daily Notes for this fine Saturday. My hopes are to a.) provide you with some interesting brain bits for your brain, and b.) prove my worth to my family, my friends, and myself.
Regarding to What the Author is Listening
It has become the case in the last week or so that I cannot seem to be productive in the morning without playing the following track at levels that will certainly damage my hearing. Today is no different.
Rickey Henderson’s Base Stealing, Converted to Distance
This idea came to me for no apparent reason, recently, and I threw the factoid out on Twitter: Rickey Henderson’s total successful steals (1,406) converts to traveling the equivalent of nearly 24 miles (23.97). Add in the 335 times he was caught stealing — also the most in Major-League history — which would consist of him mostly traveling 90 feet anyway, and he traveled almost 30 miles (29.7) whilst attempting to steal a base. This is, of course, saying nothing about your run-of-the-mill, mom-and-pop base running. He covered nearly 30 miles just trying to steal.
Where do current players rank in this arbitrary measurement?
Is a question you are certainly not asking. Below is the top ten leaders in stolen bases with distances converted to miles, as well as kilometers for you ardent non-patriots.
| Rank | Name | SB | Miles | Kilometers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Juan Pierre | 609 | 10.38 | 16.71 |
| 2 | Ichiro Suzuki | 461 | 7.86 | 12.65 |
| 3 | Carl Crawford | 441 | 7.52 | 12.10 |
| 4 | Jose Reyes | 415 | 7.07 | 11.38 |
| 5 | Jimmy Rollins | 410 | 6.99 | 11.25 |
| 6 | Derek Jeter | 348 | 5.93 | 9.55 |
| 7 | Alex Rodriguez | 318 | 5.42 | 8.72 |
| 8 | Rafael Furcal | 314 | 5.35 | 8.61 |
| 9 | Carlos Beltran | 307 | 5.23 | 8.42 |
| 10 | Michael Bourn | 287 | 4.89 | 7.87 |
Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
Pirates at Angles | 22:00 ET
Francisco Liriano (he with 48 IP and a 78 xFIP-) takes on Jerome Williams (71. IP, 101 xFIP-). Sources tell me that the other players on the team will also be involved. Liriano may be of the most interest to the reader, since he used to be great then quite terrible and is now good again. His recent success can’t totally be explained by a career-high swing rate (46.5% vs. 44.7% career) and a career-low contact rate (69.0% vs. 72.7%), but this probably means something.
Reader’s Preferred Broadcast: LA Angels of A TV.
Today’s Complete Schedule
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with my own NERD scores assigned. In this case, a pitchers NERD score indicates how many steals he’s allowed in miles, and the team’s NERD score indicates the career stolen bases in miles for the current members of each team.* Total NERD score is a simple average.
Note: the following table may not be entirely sortable.
| Away | SP | Tm. | Gm. | Tm. | SP | Home | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jhoulys Chacin | COL | .34 | 7.14 | 4.46 | 8.08 | 2.28 | WAS | Dan Haren | 12:05 |
| Alex Colome | TBA | 0 | 8.11 | 9.9 | 29.18 | 2.34 | NYY | CC Sabathia | 13:05 |
| Mig. Gonzalez | BAL | .05 | 12.02 | 9.4 | 19.40 | 1 | TOR | C.M. Wang | 13:07 |
| Bud Norris | HOU | .82 | 3.51 | 3.61 | 9.85 | .24 | CHC | Travis Wood | 16:05 |
| Jose Quintana | CHW | .20 | 8.81 | 4.71 | 9.41 | .43 | KCR | Wade Davis | 14:10 |
| Dillon Gee | NYM | .31 | 6.56 | 5.28 | 14.11 | .14 | PHI | Jon. Pettibone | 16:05 |
| Jacob Turner | MIA | .22 | 15.87 | 6.49 | 7.74 | 2.13 | SFG | Barry Zito | 16:05 |
| Tim Hudson | ATL | 1.72 | 10.13 | 5.60 | 10.53 | .03 | MIL | Donovan Hand | 16:10 |
| Allen Webster | BOS | 0 | 11.81 | 5.11 | 7.64 | 1 | DET | Max Scherzer | 19:15 |
| P.J. Walters | MIN | .15 | 3.92 | 4.41 | 13.30 | .29 | CLE | Corey Kluber | 19:15 |
| Dan Straily | OAK | .20 | 9.12 | 4.98 | 8.51 | 2.06 | SEA | Aaron Harang | 22:10 |
| Martin Perez | TEX | .02 | 12.09 | 6.76 | 14.80 | .14 | STL | Shelby Miller | 19:15 |
| F. Liriano | PIT | 1.21 | 8.34 | 4.71 | 8.44 | .84 | LAA | J. Williams | 22:05 |
| Mike Leake | CIN | .38 | 8.69 | 4.81 | 10.07 | .09 | ARI | Patrick Corbin | 19:15 |
| Zack Greinke | LAD | .92 | 22.65 | 8.77 | 10.03 | 1.48 | SDP | E. Volquez | 22:15 |
*Please note the totals are for the players’ entire career, not just what they amassed whilst on their current team.
David G. Temple is the Managing Editor of TechGraphs and a contributor to FanGraphs, NotGraphs and The Hardball Times. He hosts the award-eligible podcast Stealing Home. Dayn Perry once called him a "Bible Made of Lasers." Follow him on Twitter @davidgtemple.
Nice work, Mr. Temple. Though I’m not sure how I feel about replacing the NERD scores with stolen base data. While certainly interesting, it does not offer quite the same level of insight into the day’s match ups that I have come to expect from the Daily Notes.
I couldn’t disagree more. No reason, just different strokes for different folks. I liked the SB stuff.
Just imagine how many times Ricky Henderson was stealing a base, but then had to go back to first after a foul ball or a walk. Definitely would add a couple of miles to his total.
I sure hope he didn’t go back to first after a walk…
he’s talking about when a baserunner steals second on the same pitch that walks the batter where the stolen base isn’t counted.
great, another cistulli style sycophant. can’t you guys come up with your own “thing” instead of miming him?
Regarding David G. Temple, the Differences Between Cistulli And
Mr. Temple does not refer to himself insistently in the third person, nor does he call himself an unusually handsome author whilst arbitrarily assigning pitcher NERD scores.
Regarding Those Pitcher NERD Scores
None of them are, in fact, arbitrary in the least.
Regarding That Thing I Just Did, Imitating Cistulli, Wherein I Divided Two Closely-Related Ideas into Separate Subheadings for Purposes of Comedy and/or Obsessive-Compulsive Nerd Energies
David G. Temple does not do that thing.
Regarding That the Video Is of Something Rather More Popular than an Unheard-of Pitcher in AA Throwing Possibly Acceptable Sliders
This is also true.
Excellent work, Mr. Temple!
An aside: I am proud to say that, non-patriot though I may intermittently be, an Englishman still uses miles. I lived for a year in a neighbourhood called Mile End, and we can all agree a neighbourhood called Kilometre End would be silly.
If you take all Rickey’s SB attempts at 4 seconds per, he covered the 29.7 miles in 1 hour, 56 minutes and 4 seconds. Which is well faster than the marathon record for 26.2 miles.
ha
Mr. Temple:
Corey Kluber is pitching today. Have you ever read this feature?
Corey Kluber Society reporting in.
Present
Great spot start vs. Twins in fantasy. Hoping the Indians can sweep the Twins! Go Indians, Go Corey Kluber!
You’re short
Present, but precluded from attending via MLB.tv by regional blackout rules.
disappointed to not even see a mention of the Corey Kluber Society meeting in today’s daily notes. Fangraphs is slacking.
Corey Kluber will be motivated by this Daily Notes slight.
Guaranteed, book it
Or perhaps Mr. Kluber’s teammates will be motivated by this slight and score 6 runs in the first inning that included 5 walks and a HBP. Yes, that is the more likely outcome.
Man, I hope your baseball taste is better than your music taste.
I don’t see how Miller vs. Perez isn’t higher rated in NERD. Miller is so fun to watch and Perez is an interesting pitcher to watch develop. Also, this is an interleague rematch of the 2011 World Series. I hope this one is playing on my Fox affiliate or i am going to be mad i’m blacked out.
You didn’t really read this, did you…
LOL i left this up on my screen and i glossed over the NERD explanation
Does anyone know why Derek Holland was charged with an earned run for the run Pete Kozma scored on a passed ball yesterday? There was no base hit after the passed ball… Seems to me like it should have been an unearned run. Matt Carpenter hit an unremarkable fly ball to left, but you can’t assume the run on that, right?
Wouldn’t that be a sac fly?
Which are earned.
It may or may not have been. It’s not nearly as clear as if it were a base hit. Just seems kind of unfair to Holland, if you ask me.
I’m a patriot but not an American patriot, just a loyal Canadian. We measure sunflower seeds and Big League Chew by the kilogram and tobacco spit by the litre. (Although contractors and handymen still use feet and inches. A 2X4 will always be a 2×4; it will never be a 4.4cm x 8.8cm)
I was glad to see Jose Reyes’ miles-for-steals total converted. That way we can understand it.
Btw, how many miles did Rickey walk (i.e. BB)?
Good job, Mr. Temple. How many miles (kilometers!) did you rack up as a late-inning pinch-writer? 🙂
actually, 2x4s aren’t will never actually be 2x4s either. They’re more like 1.5×3.5s.
Regarding Barry Bonds, baseball’s home run king, and the number of miles he walked, ran, or jogged on the basepaths during official regular season games.
157 miles during the regular season.
Now, please convert SB distance into Altuve’s????