Posted by tlowster on 7/15/2019 4:38:00 PM (view original):
Man! Building a team around speed is just as difficult as building a team around hitting and power. However, I think for different reasons. Building a team full of great hitters is difficult because obviously everybody is going after the best hitters.
Building a team around speed is tough because if you have just a few guys in that 95-135 (speed + baserunning), it messes up your team stolen base success rate because your aggressive manager setting will still have those guys running frequently. So, you are forced to be sure that your entire team is either below 40 or above 150 (speed + baserunning). This will result in missing out on great hitters that can improve your team because many great hitters have a (speed + baserunning) in that 95-135 range.
In the end, the answer to your question is a matter of opinion. I personally would want a stolen base success rate of 75 percent if I were to up my stolen base manager setting to aggressive or very aggressive.
I see those super speed demons in the draft almost every year (typically CF, 2b, or RF). They have 90+ speed and 75+ baserunning. If you can get 3+ of those type of players on your team, you are golden, but usually these guys have a fatal flaw (i.e. they don't get on base enough). If they don't have that fatal flaw, then they will typically go in the top ten of the draft or the 20+ million in INTL.
A few seasons back, there were three super fielders in free agency that happened to have 150+ (baserunning + speed) ratings and they also happened to be sitting there after the Rule 5 draft so they were cheap to sign. I needed some help in the infield so I signed all three of them for cheap. I already had one on my team so I now had a total of four players with (speed + baserunning) of 150+. Every one of those players had a success rate of 73.7 percent or better. However, my team rate that season was 66.2. It was because all four of those players got on base less than my great hitters and my great hitters would get on base and get caught stealing.
I'm pretty sure this is slightly misleading. It's not (SPD + BR) that matters, purely. Oversimplifying a little bit, SPD determines steal frequency, and BR determines success.
So, for a guy with 110 (SPD + BR)-- if he has 90 SPD and and 20 BR he will have something like 30 SB and 25 CS, which is killing you; but if he has 20 SPD and 90 BR he'll have something like 2 SB and 1 CS, which is fine. Obviously this depends on your team SB frequency setting.
So, if you want to run a lot, there will be a downside to anyone with low BR; and the higher the SPD the greater that downside. Low SPD, high BR players won't hurt you very much.