Swampboy posted:Coaches do not care a bit about whether the CR speeds up the game. They care about not having their catchers and pitchers exert or injure themselves on the base paths.
Sometimes the CR's bring more speed, but since these players aren't in the starting lineup, they often lack the base running savvy to take advantage of that speed. Stats for Gnats may be able to tell us whether, as a group, CR's are more likely to get picked off than players in the line-up.
As a practical matter, the plate umpire determines speed of game, regardless of whether courtesy runners are used. If he keeps batters in the box, gets new balls in play promptly, hustles, doesn't let mound conferences drag on, and keeps both teams aware that he cares about the time limits for warm ups, for batters to get into the box and for pitchers to deliver the ball, the game will proceed at an appropriate pace.
Bam! Hit the nail on the head. Our courtesy runners get picked off all the time. It kills me. Now, when my son is pitching, at least you're putting someone in for a big slow guy and I like getting him off the base paths so we can prepare for the next inning. I also like getting the catcher in the dugout so we can go over the batters for the next inning, even though he's one of the fastest guys on the team. But, yeah, I'd guess they are usually, at the high school level, much worse base runners.