| David Biderman. 23rd May, 2007 - 10:17 pm
 Most people don’t know or care who Michael Bourn is.
In 48 career games for the Philadelphia Phillies Bourn has a whopping 27 at-bats over a two year span.
Phillies fans probably know who he is, and have probably booed him once or twice.
And that’s about it.
After all, his last effective game was one in which he had no official at-bats, one walk, and one steal. Southpaw pitching stud Cole Hamels threw eight innings that night, fanning 11 while allowing just two hits.
The big story there was pretty obvious.
But the underlying detail of the game – Bourn’s incredible efficiency – shouldn’t be ignored. Bourn isn’t a terrific player by any stretch of the imagination. He’s an average left fielder who’s good at drawing walks.
That’s his M.O. That, and the fact that he can run … really fast.
Bourn was second all-time in steals at his alma mater, the University of Houston, and was a menace on the base-paths in the minor leagues. In 109 games of A ball in Lakewood, NJ he had 57 steals and followed that with 68 swipes in 215 games in AA games in Reading, PA.
It wasn’t until he hit AAA ball that he was given more red lights and told to focus on other parts of his game.
This season in the majors he’s got just four swipes. But consider he’s only been on base nine times – out of 23 chances – and the number gets more impressive.
Still, Bourn isn’t exactly lightning in a bottle. He’s fast, but no faster than Jose Reyes, Carl Crawford, Chone Figgins, etc.
The real lesson to learn here, for fans and managers alike, is that speed is incredibly useful. Football and basketball games are often predicated upon an athlete’s speed, but baseball seems to have missed that boat.
Baseball teams need 25 active players at all times and it’s hard to believe that most clubs couldn’t fit in one specialized speedster if they wanted to.
Most squads keep three catchers active at all times, as well as six or seven relief pitchers for all of those 18-inning games they normally play (sense the sarcasm there).
If teams just tried something new – practically a sin in baseball – and added a college sprinter to their roster for pinch-running situations, baseball would get much more interesting.
Any quality track athlete focusing on short-distance sprinting would be much faster than the quickest base-runners in baseball. Owners and general managers could rejoice knowing they’d get to pay their speedsters minimum salaries; a few hundred grand a year easily trumps the income of 99.9% of track athletes.
But beyond comparisons and financial gains, the new breed of runners would be ridiculously useful.
Imagine being down a run in the ninth with two outs and a guy on first. Managers are usually sweating through their hats and jerseys at this point, wondering when, or if, they should run their possible savior.
What if that manager had the option to switch his man at first for a division-1 college sprinter?
Put that guy out there and he steals second and third before the opposing pitcher and catcher know what hit them.
You’re still down one, but you’ve got the tying run standing at third ready to fly home at first contact … that’s a little more comforting.
Bourn likely won’t overhaul baseball anytime soon, but watch him run and try to tell yourself your team wouldn’t be better with a guy who can steal bases at will.
Keep trying, and Bourn will keep stealing. |
