The Braves, sprint speed, and baserunning value

The 2018 Braves are fast. Not all of them, certainly (hi, Tyler Flowers and Kurt Suzuki!), but as a team, they’ve got a lot of speed.

Those colored dots are the Braves, and the gray dots are everyone else. Sure, the Braves aren’t above-average everywhere, but they’re above-average enough. (Nick Markakis and Johan Camargo aren’t much help, though.)

Looking over these numbers, though, might lead you to wonder: “Okay, the Braves are pretty fast. But how valuable is that?” Luckily, baserunning value is tracked and accounted for. A quick glance at the current Fangraphs leaderboards will tell you that the Braves are seventh in MLB in baserunning value, 8.1 runs above average. Now, for some of you,…