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After calculating the total WPA for a few of the prominent base stealers (based on 2007 stats), I noticed that a few of them were very good at stealing bases in high leverage situations and some very poor, while each had a large number of raw stolen bases. Often the linear weights did not match up with the WPA (wins vs wins, or runs vs runs). Are there players that are better at stealing bases in "high leverage" situations than others, or am I looking at sample size issues? Also, is it more difficult to steal a base in a "high leverage" situation than a "low/average leverage" situation. Logic tells me that in a high leverage situation the defense is going to make adjustments (pitch outs, pickoff attempts, slide step etc...) to make it more difficult to do so. Thoughts?
vr, Xeifrank
vr, Xeifrank