Measuring speed in baserunning wasn’t a precise metrics for many years.
Today they define this category as a statistic that takes stolen bases, caught stealing and other baserunning plays into account and turn them into a value above or below league average.
How is BaseRunning (BsR) calculated?
Weighted stolen bases+Ultimate Baserunning+Weighted Grounded into Double Plays Runs.
The next question is, what is (wSB)weighted Stolen bases?
It uses the league stolen base data to estimates the number of runs above or below average a player contributes to his team by stealing bases or getting caught stealing.
Ultimate Baserunning
(UBR) not to be confused with the ride sharing service UBER.
This gives credit for advancement on the bases relative to the frequency with which the league average runner advances in the same situation.
Weighted Grounded into Double Play (wGDP)
this calculate the extra out a player saves or costs his team by hitting into fewer or more double plays than the average player with the same number of opportunities.
Why is this used? with stolen base attempts on a continual decline- and the are of baserunning extending beyond stolen bases- it better to look at a context driven and encompassing stat.
Since I mentioned a decline in stolen bases, let’s look at it historically.
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Here are the last six decades and stolen base average per game.
1960- 1.34
1970- 1.93
1980- 2,27
1990- 2.13
2000 1,63
2010- 1.55
At the pinnacle, (1980) this was the heyday of Vince Coleman and Rickey Henderson days of pilfering bases.
Comparison Chart for Baserunning
Excellent 8
Great 6
Above Ave 3
Average 0
Below Ave -2
Poor -4
Awful -6
In 2012, Mike Trout recorded the highest mark ever recorded at 14.3.
About the author– Tom Knuppel has been writing about baseball and sports for a few decades. As an avid St. Louis Cardinals fan he began with the blog CardinalsGM. Tom is a member of the United Cardinals Bloggers and the Baseball Bloggers Alliance. He also maintains the History of Cardinals website. More recently he has been busy at KnupSolutions and the primary writer of many sports at KnupSports and adds content at Sports 2.0. Tom is a retired High School English and Speech teacher and has completed over one hundred sportsbook reviews. He also can be followed on Twitter at tknup.
Feel free to contact Tom at tknuppel@gmail.com
