BATTING: Early season SBO changers

A few weeks ago, BaseballHQ.com research ace Bill Macey presented findings indicating a team’s stolen-base behavior in spring might predict its SB behavior in the season.

Macey’s reasoning was that even in a small sample, a sudden sharp increase (or decrease) in SB attempts given SB opportunities might indicate a change in management philosophy (and it could also reflect changes in team makeup).

In this edition of the Batting Buyers Guide, we’ll follow up to see how teams’ SB behavior has changed through the first week of the 2012 season, comparing 2012 YTD with 2011, and also looking at any changes from Macey’s findings in 2012 spring training.

Method

Our first step was to identify SB opportunities (SBO). We used the team...

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