Leads the League in "Getting Runners Thrown Out or Holding 'em When they Should've Been Sent" or How Much Do We Miss Tim Flannery?

Baseball is a sport in which followers of the game are fascinated by statistics.

We know the leader in home runs (HR), runs batted in (RBI), runs scored (R), and the batting leader (AVG). But do we have a statistic for a third base coach? As in, how many runners has he held up that did not score? Or how many runners has he gotten thrown out at home plate?

Roberto Kelly began this season replacing one of the better third base coaches in major league baseball (Tim Flannery). Manager Bruce Bochy knows there will be growing pains. But what can be seen by the young/old man in the 22nd row is whether or not Mr. Kelly can utilize his knowledge of the situation (strength of outfielder's arm, speed of the player running the bases, ability of runner to run bases properly- use as little area to get from one base to the next- and the arms of those receiving the cutoff throw) to make an accurate decision in holding-up or sending the runner at any given time.

Is Roberto Kelly guessing? Rolling the dice on enough situations may possibly create a distance between the runner and their coach because of the "too frequent negative outcomes." Some runner (s) may have a tendency not to trust his decision making process and be thinking versus reacting to what the coach is demanding of the runner. And in the worst case scenarios these players may choose to ignore the coach and make their own decision by stopping when the coach is "waving them in" or running through the coach's stop signal.

Bochy and his braintrust need to figure out something soon or it'll be another odd-year season they come up short.


Kevin J. Marquez