The Cincinnati Reds tried to push the envelope rather a lot in 2024 beneath supervisor David Bell. The crew had some pace to work with – together with the self proclaimed quickest man alive. As a crew they had been thrown out on the bases rather a lot, however gained some further bases with their aggressiveness, too.
This morning the oldsters at MLB added a brand new set of leaderboards over on the Statcast web page as regards to baserunning. It gained’t assist us decide whether or not or not the crew did properly with regards to making an attempt to take an additional base when the ball was put in play. However it can assist us decide how properly the crew did with regards to stolen bases.
When it comes all the way down to the crew as an entire, the Reds had been third finest in all of baseball with 50 web bases gained. That trailed solely the Milwaukee Brewers (+68) and Washington Nationals (+60). So with regards to the crew numbers, Cincinnati did certainly do properly.
That doesn’t actually inform the entire story, although. The Reds had Elly De La Cruz on their crew. He was at +40 web bases gained all on his personal. That may have been third in baseball if he had been a crew (and we eliminated the Reds from the information set). The Chicago Cubs, for instance, had been 4th in baseball and had +31 as a crew.
Nonetheless, even taking De La Cruz off of the Reds numbers, they had been nonetheless at +10, which might have been tenth in baseball. That may lead us to the conclusion that even exterior of the groups finest basestealer, the Reds had been nonetheless fairly good at stealing bases and offering worth there.
The Elly De La Cruz Knowledge
Let’s begin with Elly De La Cruz, who most likely deserves his personal article given a few of the issues he did and the place he stands in a few of these classes. Right here is the place he ranked in baseball within the varied classes added to the brand new Statcast leaderboards:
Internet Bases Gained (+40) – 1st
Bases Gained vs Common (+50) – 1st
Bases Gained (+58) – 1st
Run Worth on Steals (+6) – 2nd (tie)
Outs Created (12) – 522nd
Lead distance on stolen base makes an attempt (8.9 toes) – 385th
No shock, after all, that the man who led baseball in steals ranks very extremely in loads of classes. The low rating within the outs created class additionally shouldn’t be a lot of a shock. It’s a must to attempt to steal rather a lot to get caught rather a lot. And once you get caught that’s an enormous adverse.
However what’s actually fascinating right here is the lead distance. Elly De La Cruz is 6′ 5″ tall. His common lead on a stolen base is concerning the size of him laying on the bottom along with his arm stretched out to the touch first base. There may be some unhealthy information within the 385th rating general as a result of the information is just for stolen base makes an attempt. Max Muncy leads the best way at +25.7 toes. That got here on his solely steal of the 12 months by which the pitcher by no means acknowledged him and he had a working lead by the point the pitcher even lifted his leg to begin his movement to the plate. A lot of the highest 50 is made up of performs like that.
With that mentioned, De La Cruz isn’t getting a great lead. There have been 35 gamers in baseball who had been at the least +10 web bases gained within the 2024 season. Amongst that group, De La Cruz was tied for final place with Brenton Doyle. They had been the one two gamers beneath the 9-foot mark. Solely Johan Rojas was additionally beneath the 10-foot mark. Anthony Volpe was atop the leaderboard at 15.1 toes – almost two toes forward of second place Zach Neto (13.2 toes). The common for all of baseball was 11.5 toes.
What that means is that if Elly De La Cruz can get an even bigger lead – one thing he ought to be capable to do given his attain for when he has to dive again to the bag and the truth that almost everybody else is getting an even bigger lead than he’s and thus we all know it’s one thing you will get away with – that he ought to be capable to steal extra bases even when he doesn’t try extra actually because with rather less distance between himself and the subsequent base he ought to flip just a few caught stealings into just a few steals.
The Particular person Knowledge
In the case of web bases gained there have been seven different gamers who had been on the optimistic aspect of the ledger for the Reds. There have been two guys sitting at zero. And there have been six extra on the adverse aspect.
Santiago Espinal and Jake Fraley had been each at +6, whereas Spencer Steer (+4), Stuart Fairchild (+3), TJ Friedl and Will Benson (+2), and Noelvi Marte (+1). On the other aspect of that was a trio of fellows who actually didn’t do properly right here. Tyler Stephenson was at -8, whereas Jeimer Candelario was at -5, and Nick Martini was at -4. These numbers are versus the typical participant, so within the case of a man like Stephenson who didn’t try a steal all 12 months, he wound up at -11 within the bases gained class, however since he was by no means caught he obtained a +3 on that aspect and wound up at -8.
Elly De La Cruz was at +4o web bases gained, as famous above. And that was value +6 runs for the Reds. Nobody else on the crew was higher than +1 (Espinal, Steer, Fairchild). On the different finish nobody was greater than -1 run (Stephenson, Candelario, Martini, Marte).
In the case of the lead on stolen base makes an attempt, let’s take a look at the 9 gamers who tried at the least 10 steals for Cincinnati this 12 months:
Noelvi Marte – 12.6 toes
Santiago Espinal – 11.9 toes
Spencer Steer – 11.8 toes
TJ Friedl – 10.9 toes
Stuart Fairchild – 10.5 toes
Jake Fraley – 10.3 toes
Jonathan India – 9.5 toes
Will Benson – 9.5 toes
Elly De La Cruz – 8.9 toes
The common lead on stolen base makes an attempt was 11.5 toes. As a gaggle, the Reds didn’t precisely do properly right here with solely three gamers above-average right here. Additionally they had three gamers two toes under the typical lead distance. This looks like an space that the crew may enhance on subsequent season.
