Real speed

Roberts beats the pickoff throw as Nomar gets ready to go on the DL. photo by malingering

That would be Dave Roberts, who seems to be the key player that Bruce Bochy wanted to get into the Orange and Black, if we're to believe his gushing quotes for Contra Costa Times columnist Eric Gilmore. Even though everyone remembers him best for the Bosox playoff Game 4 steal in 2004, what's as impressive was his 33 SBs and ONE caught stealing with the Dodgers that year.

Last year, he was 49 out of 55, compared with 58 out of 78 for Juan Pierre. He and Pierre also tied for 3rd in the MLB last year behind Jose Reyes and Carl Crawford with 13 triples each. I don't have the math skills to figure out how beneficial that kind of disruption is for the rest of the lineup, though I personally think that a Bonds homerun is probably going to be more damaging to the psyche of a pitcher.

Hopefully, the lousy 2005 stealing stats -- 23 SBs in 35 attempts -- were a fluke. He did hit a career-high 8 HRs that year.

The column is OK though there's inevitable whiney cheap shot at Barry Bonds with a self-centered hack reference to Roberts' counterbalancing the "relentless gloom" Bonds brings, which I assume means that Gilmore doesn't have the smarts to get a decent quote from Bonds.