(08-07-2021, 01:04 PM)DC 86 Wrote:(08-07-2021, 12:14 PM)Mick Wrote: Duggar's faster? He's 13 of 18 career for stolen bases. Slater is 25 of 28. Estrada is 6 for 6, he and Slater steal about 3 bases for every 100 ABs, approximately.
Stolen bases are the result of multiple factors, one of which is speed, but several others which are not speed-dependent.
Top-End Speed:
Estrada 28.7 feet/second
Duggar 28.5 feet/second
Slater 28.3 feet/second
Home-to-First Time:
Duggar 4.30 seconds
Estrada 4.33 seconds
Slater 4.42 seconds
Estrada is a LHB which is approx. a 0.07 second advantage so he's still faster than Slater to first base, even when normalizing the numbers.
Estrada and Duggar are both faster in terms of both top speed and initial burst/acceleration. Obviously Slater has better stolen base skills than Duggar, whether due to picking better spots, reading pitchers better, taking a bigger lead off first base, etc.
Even in his prime Albert Pujols was not fast but he was smart and a great baserunner. He had back to back seasons with 16/20 stolen bases and another season when he went 16/18. Big Andres Galarraga stole 18 bases when he was 35 years old. Adam Dunn stole 19 bases once at 6-6, 285 lb. Stolen bases are about a lot more than speed. Maybe Duggar needs to get some base stealing coaching from Slater?
Source for the above speed figures: Statcast.
I think I'd quibble with a few of your metrics here:
1) First, you have Estrada and Duggar mixed up. Estrada is the RHB, and Duggar is the LHB.
2) A RHB is two full steps further from first base, and his inertia post-swing is moving away from first base, whereas a lefty's inertia is moving toward's first base. So I believe your 0.07 (7 hundredths of a second) is not quite accurate. Two very fast switch hitters were between 0.4 and 0.45 seconds faster from the left side than the right (Mickey Mantle and Bo Jackson). Mantle had the fastest time to first at 3.1 from the left and 3.5 from the right. Bo Jackson was 3.2 from the left and 3.65 from the right.
3) I checked Statcast's 90 foot sprint, and it shows Dugger (3.85), Slater (3.93) and Estrada (3.96). This measures Slater as faster than Estrada.
4) Tonight's announcer referred to Slater as the "fastest Giant." Right before the first pitch in the 11th inning.
In other words, I'd take Estrada's speed, then Slater's speed over Duggar's speed...
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