BY PUMPEDUPJAYS – FAN FUEL BLOGGER
In 2013, this Toronto Blue Jays teams’ ability to run will make things tremendously exciting. I remember Opening Day 2011 when John Farrell got Rajai Davis and Yunel Escobar to successfully complete a double steal in the FIRST inning no less. The crowd went nuts and I’m sure the speeding frenzy made Twins starter Carl Pavano have fits over how to control the running game while trying to focus on the hitter at the same time. That’s what speed does, it has the tendency to mess opposing teams up thus providing the home team with advantageous opportunities to score due to mistakes made on the field.
It’s been well known that the 2013 version of the Blue Jays will feature speed to spare, but will it be enough to be known as the fastest Blue Jays squad ever?
Team Rank | Year | Total Team Steals | Caught Stealing | Success Rate |
1 | 1984 | 193 | 67 | 74.2% |
2 | 1998 | 184 | 81 | 69.4% |
3 | 1993 | 170 | 49 | 77.6% |
4 | 2001 | 156 | 55 | 73.9% |
5 | 1991 | 148 | 53 | 73.6% |
6 | 1989 | 144 | 58 | 71.3% |
7 | 1985 | 144 | 77 | 65.2% |
8 | 1997 | 134 | 50 | 72.8% |
9 | 2011 | 131 | 52 | 71.6% |
10 | 1983 | 131 | 72 | 64.5% |
11 | 1992 | 129 | 39 | 76.8% |
12 | 1987 | 126 | 50 | 71.6% |
13 | 2012 | 123 | 41 | 75.0% |
The 1984 team led MLB with 193 swipes of the bag and featured the likes of Dave Collins, Damaso Garcia, and Lloyd Moseby who stole 145 bags all by themselves.
The 1998 team included Shannon Stewart, Shawn Green, Jose Canseco and Alex Gonzalez to lead the way which was better than the one-dimensional Otis Nixon the year before. This team stole 50 more bases than 1997 thanks to the break out year Stewart had, the “play me everyday” Green and the “I’m not on ‘roids” Canseco.
The 1993 Championship team consisted of Alomar, White, Molitor, Henderson and Fernandez to lead the squad, but they also did it at the highest success rate out of all the teams in the chart above. Anything over 70 percent is considered good, but 77.6 percent has to be considered unfair thievery. This team also stole 41 more bases than the 1992 team thanks to the contributions of Paul Molitor and Ricky Henderson who stole 22 bases each (although Ricky did it in only 203 plate appearances).
Last year’s squad was down slightly from 2011, but one wonders if the additions of Reyes, Bonifacio, Cabrera and Izturis combined with Davis and smaller contributions from Lawrie and Encarnacion will impact the final tally at the end of the year. Bear in mind Kelly Johnson contributed a surprising 14 stolen bases last year and 15 were attributed to Anthony Gose.
With this year’s lineup, I’ve guess-timated each players’ potential number of swipes by looking at their production the past few years and coming up with I think pretty reasonable, yet unscientific figures.
Reyes – 40
Cabrera – 15
Bautista – 9
Encarnacion – 10
Lind – 0
Lawrie – 20
Rasmus – 7
Arencibia – 0
Izturis – 17
Bench:
Davis – 15
Bonifacio – 15
Total: 148
The players on the bench are the real indeterminate factors here as both Davis and Bonifacio can easily amplify their number of steals on increased playing time due to injury or – dare I say it – poor performance from other members of the team. I’ve given them modest numbers simply based on the fact that their at-bats may be limited, but I’m sure Gibbons will try to keep them fresh with late-game base running assignments and super-sub duty.
So now on to a poll!!
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