In baseball, what trait would you prefer over the other, Speed or Power?

Generally speaking. I'm not talking about a specific spot in the lineup.

In baseball, getting the job done with expending the least amount of energy is commendable, no matter where you are in the lineup. Guess I favor speed over power.

speed kills.

I'd rather be rich than stupid. But, generally speaking,



Gimmie both.

Speed to me is much better than power.

The allure of a dinger is all but gone to me and has been for a few years.

I'd much rather watch Juan Pierre bat than Barry Bonds, but that's just me. I find a speedy player to make a game more exciting, watching him run the bases and all. Not too much exciting to me about homers other than those first like three seconds of watching a ball fly out of a park.

Hell yes.

At my parents house there's a photo of my father (aged 17) standing next to Willie Mays before a Cubs-Giants game in the mid 60s. It's great because my dad looks like such a typical, clean-cut sixties kid, with nerd glasses and everything.

I often wonder if Mays is now a recluse. You never hear anything from him or see him out and about the same way you see so many other players from that era.

Earth to Ben. You can't always have your cake and eat it too, pal.

So it's big and slow or fast and weak, eh?

Speed gives you the opprotunity to score every inning. No one is going to hit a homer every game.

I'm fortunate to have gotten to have seen Mays play when I was a kid. My dad and grandfather used to take me to Wrigley whenever the Giants came to town so we could see Willie. The Giants had some great teams back in the 60's and early 70's....1971 Giants: Willie (who was 40 at the time), Willie McCovey, Bobby Bonds, Chris Spier, Doug Rader, Dick Dietz, Tito Fuentes, Ken Henderson, Dave Kingman, George Foster, Juan Marichal, Gaylord Perry, Steve Stone, Jim Barr.

As for Willie being reclusive, nothing could be further from the truth. He is THE MAN here in SF and the Bay Area. He is pretty much the spokesman for Barroid, going on all the Sunday night sports "extra" shows to defend his godson. He goes to quite a few Giants games, and is opening a new bar and restaurant called the Willie Mays SkyBox Lounge.

although i like watching balls fly out of the park..haha. i would prefer speed as well. more just because i'm stingy and i love seeing a runner try and beat the throw to 3rd or homeplate.

speed. it makes for more excitement, and it's easier to compare myself to. i can watch guys crush homers and know that i'll never be able to do anything remotely close to that. watching someone steal a base, or stretch a double into a triple, or simply cover an amazing amount of ground in the field, that's stuff where i can somewhat trick myself into thinking, "yeah, i could do that."

Willie Mays just did some promotional bit with Rob Schneider on ESPN for his Benchwarmers movies. Most people who aren't reclusive do what they can to avoid Rob Schneider.

(I am a Schneider loyalist. I have to stick by fellow 1/2 Filipinos who made it big)

As for the question, I don't think you can survive with just power or speed. There has to be both in the equation. And if you don't have pitching with it, you're the Texas Rangers.

He's Barry Bonds godfather, he only came out to defend Barry and that he wasn't a juicer. I think he might regret that down the line.

That's good to hear. I was hoping to find pics of the place but the website still seems to be under construction.

Say a player can hit .300, would you prefer that player to have more power or more speed.

If you pick the guy with more power he would have average speed.

If you pick the guy with more speed he would have average power.

I'd prefer he have more speed. Look @ Ichiro & Tony Gwynn. Both were/are hitting machines, but my impression is that Ichiro has a lot more runs & RBI because Tony was so darn s l o w. Need to look @ some stats to be sure, though.

a guy who hits .300, 40 hr, 120 rbi's, 10 sb would be a hell of a lot more valuable to a team than a guy who hits .300, 10 hr, 70 rbi's, 40 sb.

so in this context, i would take a guy with power.

speed.

though if i could take anything i'd want batting average

I'm surprised there are so many speed advocates here considering people were so staunchly Moneyball in praising Ben in that other thread.

Anyway, St. Park is right. A player who can consistently hit doubles and then clumsily loaf his way to second base is more useful than a player who slaps in singles and then tries to steal second.

However, speed/stealing/baserunning is some of the most exciting stuff you will see in a baseball game. So for entertainment value, its definitely up there. Unless you get something like one game I was at last year where Paul Konerko was caught in a rundown. Not a pretty sight.

Of course, the double threat Lee/Furcal type hitter is possibly the best and most valued type of player you see now.

this is tough to compare because ichiro didn't play against major league competition for a few years. i looked at their stats between 27 and 30 - peak years. ichiro has a big edge in runs, but he also bats at the top of the lineup. tony gwynn has a slight edge in RBIs. ichiro actually bests him on batting average, but it's close with OBP. and ichiro's never played less than 157 games in a season. i'd never realized he's never been injured.

the man has an insane stretching routine that he does everyday. watch him in the field between batters if you see the mariners play in person. he's always doing something out there staying loose and prepared.
he also keeps his bats in humidor's -- there was an article in SI a few years ago about all of the obsessive compulsive-type approaches he takes to the game. i don't see them as OCI but rather a man just trying to get 100% out of himself for the sake of being the best he can be.

watch his at-bat routine, too. standing in the batter's box, slightly leaning back while pointing his right arm directly at the pitcher and holding his bat straight up in the air, then cocking it all back into his batting stance, like a snake getting ready to strike. i did this in softball a few times but i just looked like an idiot.

Speed is fun, and is actually has become a bot of an underrated (there's that word) attribute, especially in sabermetric circles.

But power is gonna make you more likely to win, every time.

I agree with this. I'm shocked that Ben didn't take the proper stand to begin with. Obviously power destroys speed. How many of you really think that Vince Coleman (speed, no power) was a better player than Frank Thomas (power, no speed) or Willie McCovey or Mark McGwire. It's kinda ridiculous that people could believe that speed is more important.

I'm not going to say speed is meaningless, but a team full o' speed guys with zero power is a crappy team. A Team full of power guys with no speed at least has a shot.

i really dont get this thread. what do you mean by power and speed?

getting hits that go far is about bat speed. is that the kind of speed you mean o.O

What we've learned is, you need a team with balanced speed and power.
A guy that can get on base and steal bases or get the extra base on a fly ball. That guy can who can get on base with his speed is an extra RBI for the power guy batting in the middle of the order.


Best leadoff hitter ever?
Are the Cubs & Sox the only two teams he never played for?