Teams are no longer counting on the three run home run these days; they are thinking speed, speed, and more speed.
More and more clubs are searching for fast athletes they can plug in at the top and bottom of their lineups (Texas is a great example) and because of that major league baseball has all the makings of a reality series sports fans would actually watch:
The World's Fastest Baseball Human competitions—post Steroid Era.
Ever since the league has cracked down on the juice, we’ve seen this remarkable influx of speed in the game headlined, deservedly so, by well-known players like Carl Crawford, Ichiro Suzuki, and Jacoby Ellsbury.
To find the fastest players we could dig as deep as we wanted to, looking at outfield speed, home to first speed, first to third, stealing second, stealing third, etc.
But in baseball, it’s not the fastest players who always succeed.
Bernie Williams was one of the fastest during his career, but he could never translate that to the base paths because he took too long to reach his top speed.
Joey Gathright, who many say is the fastest man in the nation, has been stuck in the minor leagues for most of his career because he can’t hit.
Nook Logan never managed to figure out major league pitchers either and is now out of baseball.
In baseball it’s not just the fastest, but it’s the smartest, instinctual players who are successful.
To determine those players we will focus on one aspect: who are the most successful base-stealers?
And by that measure, who are the best?
The NFL Combine is undoubtedly the most talked about amateur rating competition in North American sports. This is where, in a sport dominated by the fastest and strongest athletes, the weight of a potential impact player is proved. Injury and commitment issues aside, those players, for the most part, are the ones who lead the big board on draft day and find professional success.
However, while important, strength and speed do not necessarily guarantee anything in Major League Baseball. You can have all the talent in the world, but if you can’t make adjustments or outsmart the competition, you won’t find success in a league that is dominated by those who are willing to change everything, even when they don’t need to (See: Lincecum, Tim; Braun, Ryan).
Speed is one of the five physical tools that professional MLB scouting agents assess when evaluating talent and the only physical tool that is used on both offense and defense. But it is rarely evaluated like the NFL. You don’t see stats from running out of the batter’s box to first or from first base to second. You see runs scored.
And that’s what counts.
MLB Formula for Stolen Base Percentage:
SB% = 100 * Stolen Bases / (Stolen Bases + Caught Stealing)
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