From the Handbook: Team baserunning

Strictly speaking, this is in the same section as the previous post, but I thought it worth its own post.

Baseball Info Systems' formula rates the 2017 Twins as the third best baserunning team in the majors, and just one base shy of second-place Cleveland. (Arizona was tops at + 103, then the Tribe with 83 and Minnesota at 82.)

This is a bit up from 2016, when BIS' data had the Twins a +61 and the sixth best baserunning team, and sharply up from 2015, when they lost 19 bases and were solidly in the bottom half.

Only one team (San Diego) grounded into fewer double plays than the Twins, and the Padres had more than 100 fewer chances to do so. As I said in the previous post, I don't know that I agree with working GIDP -- that's grounded into double plays, for yesterday's commenter -- into the baserunning formula, but it's there.

Twenty-two of the 30 teams were in positive territory as baserunners in 2017. And while the absolute worst baserunning teams (Detroit and Philadelphia) were bottom-dwellers in the standings, the Houston Astros -- who won 101 games and the World Series -- were -14 for the season, sixth worst.