My only two "Speed" teams(of 33) both won titles

[durantjerry]

Of course the teams could do other things, but of my 33 completed 2006 teams, these are the only two that used speed as an offensive weapon. They swiped 700+ sb's between the two of them, while all of my other teams were probably all under 100 per team, with maybe one or two barely over 100. That makes me 2-2 with speed and 3-31 without it. I like the former stat a lot more. Did they win partially because of the use of speed or were the teams just good? Both teams finished around 2nd to 4th in offense while being bottom feeders in the HR race. You can say it's easy to stop if you see it coming, but one of the teams was in a division with Marcus Wilby, Maligned and Altec and went on to defeat Maligned and Cristano in the playoffs after posting best record. They obviously saw what was coming, as the name of the team was "Speed Kills" and every guy except M Young had to be held on.
Revere Burners
http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/2006/team/team_other.html?user_id=7663[b:1fe547fd0d]
Speed Kills
[b]http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/2006/team/team_other.html?user_id=13129[/b:1fe547fd0d]
Should we be looking to run more often?[/b]

[J-Pav]

[quote:816f81d835]Should we be looking to run more often?[/quote:816f81d835]

That depends...

Who is we? If "we" is managers who are experienced with the game and understand all of its subtleties, then there is no doubt it can be a good strategy.

If "we" is the average manager, then I would expect it to be a much harder road to travel.

If you review the statistics for any given league, [i:816f81d835]more often than not[/i:816f81d835] the top teams are winning the net homers game. This plays into the successful ballpark configurations that [b:816f81d835]bernie[/b:816f81d835] posted. Especially troublesome is Petco (a park more favorable to the speed strategy), where many try and many fail. In general, I would rather have Ortiz have a chance to win the game with one swing of the bat, than have Lugo walk, steal, and hope Furcal can drive him home.

Your two teams are exceptions for several reasons.

Although you sacrificed the home run, you had 164 more walks than you surrendered (and 60 more hits). When coupled with speed, 224 more baserunners will have a significant impact. Further, your team was slightly stronger against RHP (which you saw 2/3 of the time), but was also well balanced against lefty pitching. Your .425 SLG percentage is [i:816f81d835]much[/i:816f81d835] higher than I've usually seen this season with the speed strategy (often sub .400).

Your pitching was a bit vulnerable to the left handed batter, but you offset that with a sound defense (although somewhat unconventional with the 3s at 2B, CF and RF but 1s and 2s everywhere else). I know you like to do a lot with the bunt and hit & run settings as well. Getting someone to trade you Pedro halfway through the season certainly didn't hurt things either.

So while [i:816f81d835]you[/i:816f81d835] can cover a lot of ground with this strategy (hitting, speed, defense, pitching, balance, trades, manager settings, etc.), I don't think a less experienced manager would fare nearly as well. If I were to try this in a league where you were doing the same thing (and you were prioritizing and correctly drafting the key pieces to the puzzle), I would expect to be absolutely crushed, as there just aren't enough of these pieces to go around.

I'll leave the speed thing to you and [b:816f81d835]geekor[/b:816f81d835]. I have a hard enough time getting a few three run homers, let alone stealing 500 bases!

[Jerlins]

Well, vs the Fenway team, I would have tossed LH's at you, basically rendering Mauer, Soriano, Crawford, Figgins, and Abreu somewhat useless. I'd take my chances with the other side of your platoons. Your Kaufman team would be a bit more difficult to defend, and would indeed give me fits.

Funny thing is I was in your Fenway team league and had my 2nd worse record in my brief history. But I did beat that team 8 of 12 :D :D

[J-Pav]

[quote:5866656ee5]Further, your team was slightly stronger against RHP (which you saw 2/3 of the time), but was also well balanced against lefty pitching.[/quote:5866656ee5]

This was based on how the team actually performed, but [b:5866656ee5]Jerlins[/b:5866656ee5] is right, I would've thrown all the lefties I could also.

[markp65]

Thanks for posting those links, DJ. 478 steals would be remarkable if only on a last place "gimmick" team, but that many steals on a 95-win team is astounding. Very well done. You win the Whitey Herzog Honorary Managerial Award, hands down.

But like Whitey's Cardinals teams of the 1980s, you've also got a lot more going on these two teams than steals. In addition to what J-Pav and Jerlins pointed out, I'm looking at your team batting averages -- .292 and .280. Those numbers, along with the SLG pcts J-Pav mentioned -- .429 and .425 -- and the offensive rankings you cited (2nd and 4th) certainly have something to do with your success. Those aren't the stats of a one-dimentional "steal-or-die" team.

I think it's interesting that you chose to build one of your speed teams in a bonafide singles-hitters' park and another in a borderline singles-hitters' park. Maybe that's a key to success with a speed team: build it in a singles park rather than a Petco.

I'm not smart enough to do the math, but is it possible that you won as many games as you did despite rather than because of your base-stealing game? (Probably not, I'm guessing). I'd assume that your base-stealing game contributed to your success becuase you stole at a 75% clip, which seems very good -- didn't Bill James or someone establish 75-80% as the benchmark for whether it pays to steal? But that's still 254 times you got thrown out. Does anyone have a formula to help determine whether stealing helps or hurts?

Despite your success, I remain convinced that when compared to the ways in which you can build a team around a ballpark (i.e., HRs, pitching, one-sidedness), building a team around a concept like speed is riskier.

Nice work, man!