Stealing bases

[HumnHilghtFreel]

With the way the Reds have been hitting of late, "manufacturing" runs can become really important. And so far, I've been fairly impressed with the way that they've been moving guys with steals. Through today, the Reds are 13/3 in stolen base attempts, which I believe to be a pretty damn good clip. In the NL Central it's tops thus far, the Cubs have 8(3 more as of today, but I'm not counting those).

Now, if we could just get our guys to push these runners across the plate, we'd really be in business. I don't know if it's a conscious effort by Narron to try to get things going, but if it is, I like what he's doing.

[Ltlabner]

With the way the Reds have been hitting of late, "manufacturing" runs can become really important. And so far, I've been fairly impressed with the way that they've been moving guys with steals. Through today, the Reds are 13/3 in stolen base attempts, which I believe to be a pretty damn good clip. In the NL Central it's tops thus far, the Cubs have 8(3 more as of today, but I'm not counting those).

Now, if we could just get our guys to push these runners across the plate, we'd really be in business. I don't know if it's a conscious effort by Narron to try to get things going, but if it is, I like what he's doing.

As long as they keep from getting picked off or making dumb decisions to strech hits into extra bases (looking right at you Mr. Freel) it's good to see them moving. But running, just to be running, isn't going to acomplish much.

[thatcoolguy_22]

stealing 2nd would not help much if no one can lay a sac bunt/fly or get a basehit when it matters... The reds situational hitting is awful but on the brightside it is something that can be taught and improved fairly quickly.

[Highlifeman21]

Now if we could only get Phillips or Freel to steal 1st Base...

[Dunner44]

Either that or if we ever get one of them on 3rd, they need to steal home. I saw Jackie do it (19 times in his big league career... wow).

...seriously though, what happened to stealing home?

[M2]

The Reds have some speed, might as well use it. It's encouraging to see Dunn running early in the season. I've always thought he should be able to swipe 20 bases a season without too much trouble. He's fairly fast and he's on base enough, helps that he's shed some blubber too.

Freel's aggressive as hell. I love that. I actually don't mind when he runs into an out just because I enjoy the aggression so much (and before last season he was pretty effective). Encarnacion should be another 20 SB guy. You've got to figure Hamilton can swipe some bases with his speed.

Yet the guy who could really do something special on the bases is Phillips. That guy is a high quality theft artist. He's got the speed and technique to steal 50+ (a great break enables him to steal with a relatively short lead). Like Highlifeman said, if he can get to 1B he can wreak havoc.