Bigger problems than stolen bases

Giving up a stolen base can sure seem like a big deal and when you give up nine of them you would think that is a huge number. It isn't something you want to give up every night, but it's not as big of a problem as our pitching staff's inability to not give up the free pass. A stolen base has an average value of about 0.18 runs. That means every time a runner takes a base he increases his teams chances to score by that amount. That isn't much and when you take into account the potential to lose 0.43 value if you are caught it's a pretty dangerous wager. In the case of the Rangers off of Tim Wakefield though on Tuesday night there wasn't much danger of being caught and only value to gain. It was an easy choice for them and gave them approximately 1.62 runs in value. That is no amount to ignore and is worth slightly more than the average home run, which is worth about 1.4.

Sounding the alarms from the pen

I love to preach patience and we have a long season ahead, but I think it's time to question the bullpen. It's only been 4 games, but a team putting big situations in the hands of Scott Schoeneweis and Scott Atchinson might want to start looking for help. Of course we know that isn't the only trouble, but I'm starting to wonder if we have the arms to get to Daniel Bard, Hideki Okajima and Jonathon Papelbon.

Our lefty specialist has already been called on to face left handers and while he has a career xFIP of 3.53, but if you try to stretch him his xFIP jumps to 5.19. This should limit his usage exclusively to lefty hitters and should not be used for any more than that.