http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ge-fullcount091909&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

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Stinking it up in the AL Central

Gordon Edes

By Gordon Edes

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Cutting corners: If you want to understand which teams run the bases well, you have to look beyond the stolen base leaders. Ari Kaplan, the Caltech-trained statistical analyst, big-league consultant and webmaster (ariball.com), took a look at which teams are best at going from first to third base on a single.

Coming into play this week, Kaplan found that the Angels, known as an aggressive team on the basepaths, lead with the highest percentage of going from first to third on a single (with no runner on second): 31.2 percent of the time (84 of 269 chances). Baltimore is next at 30.5 percent (76 of 249 chances). Then Colorado at 29.5 percent (54 of 183 chances). On the bottom is Kansas City with 18.1 percent (42 of 232 chances).

Chone Figgins(notes) of the Angels led all players in going from first to third on a single, doing so 52 percent of the time (26 of 50) without being thrown out. That includes 4 of 11 advances on balls hit to left. Erick Aybar(notes) of the Angels was next at 50 percent with 20 advances in 40 chances, with Shane Victorino(notes) of the Phillies third at 38.5 percent (20 of 52).

On the bottom, Daric Barton(notes) of the Athletics never went first to third in 18 chances. Neither did Jack Hannahan(notes), who split the season between the Athletics and Mariners and was 0 for 14. Magglio Ordonez(notes) of the Tigers was 1 for 26, Bengie Molina(notes) of the Giants 1 for 23, and David Ortiz(notes) of the Red Sox and Aramis Ramirez(notes) of the Cubs were 1 for 22.

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