Are SBs really Up?

Yesterday's review of the HRs totals over the past five seasons offered proof that HRs are not down despite the conventional fantasy wisdom that HRs are down. Today, I offer data that addresses the conventional fantasy wisdom that SBs are up.

	SB	HR
	%>=5	%>=5
2009	29.1%	48.8%
2008	25.2%	45.7%
2007	26.2%	47.9%
2006	27.1%	50.7%
2005	25.2%	48.6%

One sees that the % of players who steal 5 or more bases has risen over the past five years. (One can also see the percent of players who hit 5 or more HRs is essentially where is was five years ago.) Whether 5 SBs is relevent to fantasy players is a debatable.

My data does show the big jumps occur in the number of players who stole 20-30 bases and those who stole 10-14. Both figures are key points in the perception of fantasy value as one solidly lands as a category plus (20 or more) and the other makes a player a fantasy contributor with double digit totals.

With the data satisfying my perception of more SBs, the strategy that follows from the data is the issue to be handled. If there are more stolen bases available, then there will be more needed to win a category.

Does this mean the SB elite are less valuable now that they cannot be counted on to carry the category?