People have long debated the wisdom of giving runners the green light, and this became an especially hot topic after the release of Moneyball. I noticed that David Wright just got caught stealing for the 7th time. He's now stolen 7 bases in 14 attempts. David DeJesus has stolen 1 base in 5 attempts, and 52 bases in 102 attempts over his career. Most people would agree that these rates are unacceptable (although Wright has typically had a much higher success rate in his career), but do you buy into the argument that there's other value in having a baserunner who might steal -- i.e. getting in the pitcher's head/taking the pitcher out of his rhythm, making the defense edgy, etc? Or does it not make any sense to you unless a runner proves that he can be successful at least 75-80% of the time? Or are you somewhere in between?
Discuss!
Discuss!
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