THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Bad Running

Dan Fox shows us that Wade Boggs may have been the least successful baserunner of our lifetime.  Biggio and Molitor have reached base as often as Wade Boggs in their career, yet have managed to score around 300 runs each, more than Boggs.  The 150 extra HR helps.  But, it certainly can’t explain it all.  Boggs’ baserunning explains the rest.  To put another way, Boggs has reached base almost 500 more times than Raines, yet has scored less runs than Raines did.  Yowza.  The average Raines’ hits and walks are worth more than the average of Boggs’.  Boggs’ 3010 hits have some “emptiness” to them.

By the way, Rice/Boggs would be a good candidate for “With or Without You” for GIDP.