Acuna called up

[thewupk]

Acuna is 1/1. He will run if he is on 1b imo. Albies keeps hitting extra base hits, so no reason to run

I'm not saying he can't get to 30. But I thought it was well established that being fast =/= good base stealer/runner.

[CJ9]

I remember reading some reports on Acuña in the minors about how his instincts as a base stealer were not very good. Will be interesting to see if that's true as he gets more chances.

[msstate7]

I'm not saying he can't get to 30. But I thought it was well established that being fast =/= good base stealer/runner.

I was just wanting to see how well that correlates to elite speed, not just above avg. I had no idea, so I asked mlb steal success rate. I was gonna compare that number to the elite guys' rate.

ETA... found it... 73% success rate last season, so elite speed guys were about 10% better than avg

[Nerfherders]

Stealing has almost as much to do with properly reading the pitcher as it does speed. I think the more important aspect of speed is running with a ball in play. Infield hits, Breaking up DP's, taking an extra base on a hit, going 1st to 3rd, scoring from 2nd are all IMO more important than stealing bases in most circumstances.

[jpx7]

I was just wanting to see how well that correlates to elite speed, not just above avg. I had no idea, so I asked mlb steal success rate. I was gonna compare that number to the elite guys' rate.

ETA... found it... 73% success rate last season, so elite speed guys were about 10% better than avg

I didn't immediately find an sb% column by which I could sort, so I used fangraphs' wSB stat instead (which is supposed to estimate "the number of runs a player contributes to his team by stealing bases, as compared to the average player"). I then compared that to the Sprint Speed Leaderboard Enscheff linked.

Player	wSB Rank	Sprint Speed Rank
Trea Turner	#1	#6
Michael A Taylor	#2	#39
Ender Inciarte	#3	#183
Tim Anderson	#4	#10
Dee Gorden	#5	#9
Billy Hamilton	#6	#5
Trevor Story	#7	#4
Jean Segura	#8	#108
Andrew Benintendi	#9	#142
Mike Trout	#10	#24

Half the players are in both top-tens; but a third of the wSB top-ten are outside the top-hundred. Grains of salt apply, given this is just 2018, so just over a month's worth of data. And obviously, if your manager doesn't send you, or you hit too many bombs like Albies, you're not going to show up very high in the wSB rankings. But I think this very imperfectly reflects that speed is helpful, but not sufficient, for adding value in the steals department.

Sidenote: that was exhausting and I don't know how Enscheff does this sort of **** (and with a lot more complexity) all the time. Back to reading poems.

[nsacpi]

Back to reading poems.

how about writing one about Ozymandias

i help with first line

I met a traveller from a little island

[jpx7]

how about writing one about Ozymandias

i help with first line

I met a traveller from a little island

Bold choice to rewrite Shelley's pentameter in hendecasyllabics—though it does nicely suggest an imperial mode.

And on his rosined bat, these words are scrawled:
My name is Ozymandias, the Little King;
Look on my launch-angle, ye skeptics, and despair!
No one on base remains. And round the stands
Of that infernal suburb, boundless and bare,
The high and arcing bombs sing with the fans.

[msstate7]

If acuna steals at league avg (.73), he would have to run 41 times. In 5 games, he has run 1 time. 135 games left, he has to pick up the pace, SJ

[nsacpi]

Bold choice to rewrite Shelley's pentameter in hendecasyllabics—though it does nicely suggest an imperial mode.

And on his rosined bat, these words are scrawled:
My name is Ozymandias, the Little King;
Look on my launch-angle, ye skeptics, and despair!
No one on base remains. And round the stands
Of that infernal suburb, boundless and bare,
The high and arcing bombs sing with the fans.

very nice...all you needed was a little inspiration...Ozymandias, the Little King has a nice ring to it

[nsacpi]

Little King might stick

[Enscheff]

I didn't immediately find an sb% column by which I could sort, so I used fangraphs' wSB stat instead (which is supposed to estimate "the number of runs a player contributes to his team by stealing bases, as compared to the average player"). I then compared that to the Sprint Speed Leaderboard Enscheff linked.

Player	wSB Rank	Sprint Speed Rank
Trea Turner	#1	#6
Michael A Taylor	#2	#39
Ender Inciarte	#3	#183
Tim Anderson	#4	#10
Dee Gorden	#5	#9
Billy Hamilton	#6	#5
Trevor Story	#7	#4
Jean Segura	#8	#108
Andrew Benintendi	#9	#142
Mike Trout	#10	#24

Half the players are in both top-tens; but a third of the wSB top-ten are outside the top-hundred. Grains of salt apply, given this is just 2018, so just over a month's worth of data. And obviously, if your manager doesn't send you, or you hit too many bombs like Albies, you're not going to show up very high in the wSB rankings. But I think this very imperfectly reflects that speed is helpful, but not sufficient, for adding value in the steals department.

Sidenote: that was exhausting and I don't know how Enscheff does this sort of **** (and with a lot more complexity) all the time. Back to reading poems.

The trick is to write data classes used over and over that import all the data. Write them once and the data is all there all the time.

At that point you can compare all wSB values with all Sprint Speed values for all players across multiple seasons and look for correlation. Once you have the R2 value you know the answer without need for any qualifying words.

[jpx7]

The need for qualifying words is my wheelhouse, though.

[GovClintonTyree]

Bold choice to rewrite Shelley's pentameter in hendecasyllabics—though it does nicely suggest an imperial mode.

And on his rosined bat, these words are scrawled:
My name is Ozymandias, the Little King;
Look on my launch-angle, ye skeptics, and despair!
No one on base remains. And round the stands
Of that infernal suburb, boundless and bare,
The high and arcing bombs sing with the fans.

Just extraordinary. Chapeau

[Enscheff]

It probably doesn't surprise anyone, but Acuna has only been up for like a week ,and he already has 3 of the 7 hardest hit balls of any Brave.

The complete Top 10:

1. Acuna 111.8 mph
2. Tucker 111.2 mph
3. Acuna 110.9 mph
4. Tucker 110.4 mph
5. Tucker 110.3 mph
6. Freeman 109.2 mph
7. Acuna 108.7 mph
8. Freeman 108.7 mph
9. Albies 108.7 mph
10. Albies 108.4 mph

For reference, the hardest hit balls in all of MLB so far in 2018 are:

1. CarGo 118.3
2. Judge 118.1
3. Stanton 117.9
4. Hanley 117.5
5. Stanton 117.3
6. Ozuna 117.2
7. Schwarber 117.2
8. Franchy Cordero (who?) 116.9
9. Cruz 116.9
10. Stanton 116.9

Braves hitters have a ways to go to catch the real mashers haha. It's just a matter of time before Stanton or Judge hit one 120+.

[thewupk]

Looks like you need more than 5-10 sprint speed readings before making any determinations...


Acuna has 17 runs that has averaged 29.8 ft/s which is 7th in baseball. 70 grade speed indeed.

[sturg33]

It probably doesn't surprise anyone, but Acuna has only been up for like a week ,and he already has 3 of the 7 hardest hit balls of any Brave.

The complete Top 10:

1. Acuna 111.8 mph
2. Tucker 111.2 mph
3. Acuna 110.9 mph
4. Tucker 110.4 mph
5. Tucker 110.3 mph
6. Freeman 109.2 mph
7. Acuna 108.7 mph
8. Freeman 108.7 mph
9. Albies 108.7 mph
10. Albies 108.4 mph

For reference, the hardest hit balls in all of MLB so far in 2018 are:

1. CarGo 118.3
2. Judge 118.1
3. Stanton 117.9
4. Hanley 117.5
5. Stanton 117.3
6. Ozuna 117.2
7. Schwarber 117.2
8. Franchy Cordero (who?) 116.9
9. Cruz 116.9
10. Stanton 116.9

Braves hitters have a ways to go to catch the real mashers haha. It's just a matter of time before Stanton or Judge hit one 120+.

If you don't know Cordero, you should watch a few of his highlights. Dude can MASH and run

But he strikes out a ton. Reminds me of Aaron Judte