Best of BP 2025: Speed Watch, featuring Chandler Simpson

I’ve a confession to make. I don’t like watching stolen bases. Within the typical case, I discover them fairly boring, and generally even annoying.

That’s on video, to make certain; I received’t contest that it’s a thrill in-person, and this doesn’t embrace different types of baserunning. However the video portrayal merely requires so many cuts and cues that it doesn’t actually work for me. In nearly all circumstances, your first tip that the runner goes comes from the announcer. You’ll be able to’t even see it. “And the runner goes.” “Runner going.” And so forth.

By the point I’m seeing the runner on display, it’s the second earlier than the tag and all the rigidity and build-up from the in-person thrill or seeing the runner rounding second on a ball within the hole have been prevented. Barring the weird tag or slide, the end result of the play can instantly be seen—protected, out, or can’t inform. And in what have to be three-quarters of all circumstances, the runner or defender will linger across the play for a second to offer his group the chance to problem, instantly casting doubt on whether or not pleasure or grief or frustration are even the right responses. No different play pauses emotion with such regularity, and no different play has so little on-screen construct up.

Even afterwards, the play can stay shrouded in thriller. In at least 90% of all replays of a profitable stolen base—I’ve not studied the matter to check this quantity—the announcer will name it a “nice soar.” On numerous events this occurs even when the replay doesn’t embrace the pitcher throughout the body, and due to this fact it couldn’t be seen in any respect whether or not it was in truth a “nice soar,” and that’s along with these “nice jumps” having about as away from a visible definition as a check-swing or balk. You merely understand it once you see it. That may be a nice soar.

With the digital camera focus nearly solely on the batter and pitcher, and ignoring the baserunner, the stolen base try nearly inevitably offers me a sense of disruption, too. No, this isn’t about you. This holds much less true when the pitcher throws over, or the announcers instantly start predicting a stolen base, or a cut-away shot exhibits the runner dancing off first base comically. One other exception can be when the runner is in plain sight on second base, or after they instantly break into the body on the steal of residence. However these are a lot rarer occurrences.

Furthermore, I discover pace genuinely indistinguishable on display. If it’s an unusually tall or brief participant (e.g., Elly De La Cruz or Corbin Carroll), or has an extended distance, it may be visually apparent and due to this fact fulfilling. However within the nice majority of circumstances, shifting solely from one base to the subsequent, all of it seems to be quick. (As earlier than, on the whole baserunning, there’s sufficient time to construct up rigidity and forecast the potential outcomes, such that this may be loved.)

To make certain, there’s no specific motive for the league to bend to my needs right here. I’m clearly outnumbered on this problem and that’s nice. It doesn’t all must go my method, however I convey it up this Sunday for one specific motive: the debut of Chandler Simpson. As I see it, if I’m ever to benefit from the stolen base, will probably be from somebody so quick and so relentless that he can steal 104 bases in 110 video games.

Simpson’s Saturday debut was anticlimactic in that he didn’t get an opportunity to steal, first hitting a pointy floor ball that Yankees starter Carlos Carrasco interrupted and despatched to first, after which rolling over to first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and lining out to Trent Grisham. He did take part in a ninth-inning rally that despatched the sport to extras, together with a ground-rule double for his first hit. However base-stealing isn’t a lot of a precedence once you’re the run that trims the margin reasonably than nullifying it.

Sunday can be a extra dramatic setup. Amidst the no-hit bid, Max Fried was additionally exhibiting off his three-time Gold Glove-winning expertise, bouncing away from the mound to snag a Jake Mangum dribbler earlier than spinning and firing a really robust throw to first within the second inning. An inning later it was Simpson’s flip to be bested, as his bouncer drew Goldschmidt away from the bag and Fried out-raced him to the bag. (Thrilling little doubt, however not the stolen base try being wanted.) Fried added a pick-off when Christopher Morel switched off at second base within the fourth.

Simpson was once more capable of convey a buzz to the ballpark on a grounder to Goldschmidt within the sixth inning, however that clanked off of Goldschmidt’s glove and allowed Simpson to succeed in simply. Nevertheless, the thrill on this play acquired a lot louder when the play—initially dominated an error—was modified to successful within the eighth inning, earlier than Fried had allowed some other hits. Nonetheless, other than the desires of the Yankee diehards, this was fairly a transparent name as a result of Fried appeared much less more likely to get to the bag forward of Simpson this time, and actually the primary occasion was highlight-worthy sufficient that this can be a merciless error, even when it was Goldschmidt’s misplay that diminished the possibilities of an out to zero.

In the end, the chance would arrive within the eighth. Following a drive out, Simpson stood on first base in a reasonably clear steal scenario—down three, however with two outs, nobody else on base, and sufficient outs left to danger one. However right here’s the issue.

It’s all the pieces I already described as motive for locating steals boring and disruptive. “Runner takes off” is the primary clue of motion, and the second factor I do know is the outcome. On this case, that’s as a result of Austin Wells’ throw was an entire misfire, however even when not, Simpson doesn’t become visible till the digital camera angle is reversed and he’s visibly protected at second.

Making issues worse—a minimum of for hopes of swaying me, this solely occurred the very first batter after Fried, the Gold Glover and pickoff maestro, exited the sport, primarily robbing us of probably the most thrilling context potential for the steal. When Simpson was on first a couple of innings earlier, the published particularly modified digital camera angles to create the duel, with Fried’s leg holding proper on the tipping level of his supply to attempt to idiot Simpson. With two pickoffs used earlier than a pitch was even thrown to Junior Camineiro, the stakes have been primarily raised as excessive as potential; the maestro must be good to get him, and simply as good to cease him from operating. (The beneath image is a pitch, not a throw over.) Again on the typical digital camera angle, and with out the distinctive Fried on the mound, the thrill and build-up fades significantly.

Additional, Simpson’s eventual eighth-inning stolen base was ball two in a five-pitch stroll to Yandy Díaz. In different phrases, the additional base Simpson took didn’t show a very important one. It’s definitely believable sufficient that the stroll was earned on account of the open bases, and even that the primary two stray pitches have been impressed by nervous ideas of Simpson’s base-stealing. But it surely’s nonetheless a little bit of a letdown, and it speaks to the extra problem of stolen base worth.

This worth is usually inflated by viewers as a result of it’s so obvious what their measurement is, together with the long-held and widespread need to make stealing bases the key path to profitable (see Arizona, 2023, even after they stopped operating as a lot within the playoffs). Different baserunning exists in grayer shades, and so the 2 expertise are sometimes lumped collectively regardless of not being exactly correlated.

Only for instance, in Statcast’s baserunning worth leaderboards, even simply wanting on the final two seasons of elevated base-stealing, the vary of “Runs by way of Further Bases Taken” by group (-12 to +14) is considerably higher than that of “Runs by way of Stolen Bases” (-6 to +13, with the second-highest mark at solely +8). The stolen base is mostly merely taking second base, which has worth (the Statcast web page says +0.2 runs for a profitable steal), however different baserunning performs usually imply taking the additional base to succeed in third on a single, or to attain from second. These can, logically, be a lot larger run worth performs, to not point out that they nonetheless double stolen base makes an attempt, even for probably the most aggressively stealing groups.

This weekend sequence was definitely not the one to sway me on stolen base pleasure, as primarily each thrill of Simpson’s pace manifested in one other method. Even when the announcers started to invest that Simpson, standing on first within the eighth, might take off, the build-up far exceeded the true factor. Nonetheless, I’ll do my finest to put aside hubris, preserve watching, and provides the stolen base an opportunity.