Guess what MLB Center Fielder did not make his college team?

As one of our posters says "you don't have to be a great player to be in MLB, you only have to be good every day". Obviously, Brett fits that mold. Interesting how at 6.6 (speed) he can still that many bases.

Clint, I have a feeling he runs faster than 6.6 now, because he looks like one of the faster guys in the ML. Remember though, base stealing is not all about speed. Really reading pitchers, getting good leadoffs and great jumps are really the most important part. While the best base stealers are fast, they're not necessarily the fastest guys in the Majors. In the 1960's Maury Wills was not even the fastest guy on his own team, (Willie Davis could run circles around him), yet he led the Majors in stolen bases for years.

Do you think the note from Dad would work on most coaches today? That is a pretty funny story.

quote:

Originally posted by Clint Taylor:
As one of our posters says "you don't have to be a great player to be in MLB, you only have to be good every day". Obviously, Brett fits that mold. Interesting how at 6.6 (speed) he can still that many bases.

Considering the fact that there are only 750 big leaguers in the world out of 3,000,000,000 men I would say that you do have to be a GREAT player to even get a cup of coffee! It's amazing to me how people underestimate the ability level/talent/skill of players at the Major League level.

Also, a true 6.6 is very fast...a lot of people say they run that fast, but really aren't even close to it (see the thread "fudging the numbers")

I feel to be a real 6.6 guy, you have to apply the same rules to consider a guys 90mph fastball. You can't just touch that speed one time. You have to run constant 6.55's, 6.6's and 6.65's. In other word's average 6.6. That eliminates reaching that speed one time due to factors like running on turf, or a quick finger on the stopwatch. I noticed at the PG nationals in the past that were run on turf with mutiple tries, the times were exceptional as compared with running on grass.

Speed is definitely what kept Gardner in major league baseball. If only he could hit more and learn how to drop a bunt, his OBP would be off the charts. The one knock I have on Gardner is he takes way too many pitches that are right down the middle of the plate to a fault and often hits behind the count. He does get to everything in the OF and has a decent arm but the jury is still out on on whether he's a legit .270+ hitter or if 2010 was a career year.

So I'm guessing that a 6.6 second 60 would be the equivalent of a 4.4 forty yard dash. Possibly a little slower than that. If it were sustainable, it would be about a 9.9 100 yard time. Back when they used to run that, it was quite fast.

To me, I feel a 4.4 forty is a little more elite speed than a 6.6 sixty simply because I've seen more 6.6's in baseball spikes on grass while 4.4's are hard to come by on grass.

I didn't know that about Gardner. He was one of the players I enjoyed watching the most last year.

Stu