B4B

I was browsing through Roto Junkies’ famous message board: The Bullpen this evening; reading about Joey Votto, a player I recently traded for in my 14 team dynasty league. I don’t know if I’m a lone on this one, but I like to read analysis about a player I acquired, as a way to re assure myself I’ve made a good decision.

Anyway, I came across this stimulating comment by one of the posters:

“This is completely unsubstantiated by any statistical support, but I’ve noticed recently, that it seems when hitters come up and struggle a little bit, they tend to focus on their running game to kind of make up for the fact that they are struggling at the plate, so their SB totals seem a bit high.

I’ve noticed this during the season as well. It seems players who have the ability to steal bases, throw the ball hard, and cover a lot of ground defensively, will over compensate, and flash their tools more often–when they are struggling with the bat.

Whether the theory is legitimate or not, I think it brings up an interesting idea: What else can typical human behavior tell us about ballplayers? How can we utilize that information in our leagues?