Why I Like Dave Roberts on the Giants

Many fans have been clamoring for the Giants to trade Dave Roberts. One reason I have been supporting keeping Roberts around, as long as we are on the hook for all that money, is for him to pass on his base-stealing tips that he picked up from Maury Wills to the Giants stable of young roadrunners. If he can do that, and the knowledge lives on in our farm system, it would be worth all those millions he received. Recently, there is news that he has been passing on his knowledge to a Giants player, though not one of the young guys.

In Joan Ryan's "Inside the Giants Clubhouse" blog, she noted some of the information that was imparted at a recent Comcast baseball luncheon on Treasure Island:

Randy Winn on his success on the bases last season: "I'm trying to get a little smarter as I get older. I'm talking a lot to Dave Roberts.''

And learn Randy Winn did. He learned some tips on stealing from Roberts in 2007 and 2008 and went from being horrible stealing bases, a career 67% percentage success, 60% the two previous seasons, to having a success rate of 83% in 2007, a career high (previous highs were 82% in 2003, then 77% in 2002 in a 11 year career, 8 as a starter; best basestealers are 80% and above), then 92% in 2008, which only the elite does.

I hope Roberts and Winn can teach Lewis, Velez, and any of our other rabbits in our system (Ford , McBryde, Richardson, Izturis, Noonan, etc.) so that this knowledge will get passed along in our system. I had been hoping Roberts will become our base stealing coach after he retires, but he seems to be mad that Lewis is starting over him, so I don’t know if that will happen now. Hopefully Winn and the other speedsters can pick up things that will get stored in the Giants Way manual for future training…