Of course I decided to write this after the suprised reaction to Olivo's steal of third base last week, and waited to post it until after he pulled his groin.  Still Olivo is fast, he may be the fastest catcher in the major leagues.  The first indicator you might use would likely be stolen bases, and using fangraphs leaderboards, Miguel Olivo is 4th in stolen bases among catchers over the last 2 years.  Of course being 4th among catchers in stolen bases is like...being 4th among people who aren't very good at something.  But notice that Olivo has the fewest games played, (of course) the fewest plate appearances, the fewest walks, and the fewest singles, leaving him the fewest opportunities to steal bases.  Baseball-Reference.com confirms this, showing Olivo having 242 SBO (stolen base opportunites) since 2009, while the leaders; Jason Kendall, Russell Martin, and Yadier Molina had 395, 413, and 426 SBO respectively.

Here is a quick chart of the catching leaders by Stolen Base Attempt Percentage since 2009

Miguel Olivo:    7.4%

Jason Kendall:    7.1%

Russell Martin:    6.1%

Yadier Molina:    5.6%

AL League Avg:    6.4%

So, Miguel Olivo attempts to steal bases more often than any other catcher over the last 2 years, although his success rate is no better than theirs (Yadier Molina has the best at 71%, but none of them actually garner much value one way or the other via stolen bases). 

Olivo also leads all catchers (and in fact, all current Mariners) in triples over the last 2 years with 11, and to reiterate, he hasn't come to the plate that often, with a mere 784 at bats.

Olivo leads that same group noted above in XBT% (Percentage of times the runner advanced more than one base on a single or more than two bases on a double, when possible) over the last 2 years.

Miguel Olivo:    47%

Russell Martin:    45%

Jason Kendall:    33%

Yadier Molina:    28%

League Avg:    40%

As Jeff from lookoutlanding.com noted a few weeks ago, that can be pretty valuable, though Olivo doesn't appear in the top 5, I think it's still reasonable to assume he's a positive number where most catchers would be in the negative 3 to 5 range.

So what's the point of this?  To prove that Olivo might be worth 5 runs more than the average catcher on the basepaths and make up for the chunk that Safeco will take out of his isolated slugging?  Well, yes, but also, I think this offers a bit of insight into Jack Zduriencik's overarching plan.

There are two parts, the first is the extra base taken (XBT).  The Mariners are bad at it, and have been for a long time, finishing below average as a team since 2005.  The second is protection theory, not the theory that Jack Cust would protect, say, Franklin Gutierrez and Chone Figgins, but rather that Chone Figgins and Franklin Gutierrez would, after reaching base, protect Jack Cust.  This is based on the idea that hitters hit better when runners are on base for several reasons;  first of course is that pitching from the stretch instead of the windup takes away velocity and deception, second is the distraction of checking on a runner between pitches and specifically immediately before throwing a pitch, the third occurs when you might actually be worried about a runner stealing a base - throwing over, it's just as much effort as throwing a pitch when actually trying to catch a runner (having several fleet runners reach first base could significantly increase a pitch count that isn't normally kept track of) and could throw a pitcher out of rythm, and the fourth, which also would only occur with a faster runner, is the higher propensity to throw a fastball, as opposed to a significantly slower breaking pitch, giving the batter the advantage of knowing what to look for and not worrying about bendy pitches so much.  Jack Cust specifically would likely appreciate seeing more fastballs and fewer curveballs.

Last year, the Mariners finished 4th in stolen bases as a team with 142, of course, most of that was garnered by Ichiro (42), Chone Figgins (42), and Franklin Gutierrez (25) (By the way, by rate, Franklin Gutierrez - 14.2%, attempted a stolen base nearly as often as Ichiro - 14.4%)  They also attempted to steal 8.6% of the time.  However, in XBT%, they finished 26th, with 36%.  Of course a team doesn't need that to be successful, but it becomes significantly more important when your team doesn't hit home runs very often. 

Since last year, the offensive players Zduriencik has acquired have been:  (all stats in parentheses are since 2009)

Miguel Olivo (7.4% SBA%, 47% XBT%)

Brendan Ryan (10.6% SBA%, 54% XBT%)

Adam Kennedy [assuming he makes the team] (9.6% SBA%, 33% XBT%)

Jack Cust (2% SBA%, 31% XBT%)

as well as players that can expect to see more time next season like

Michael Saunders (9.8% SBA%, 35% XBT%)

Justin Smoak (0.7% SBA%, 41% XBT%)

Dustin Ackley (Assumedly very fast)

They are replacing:

Rob Johnson (2.2% SBA%, 29%XBT%)

Jose Lopez (2.4% SBA%, 26% XBT%)

Mike Sweeney (2.2% SBA%, 33% XBT%)

Ken Griffey (0% SBA%, 19% XBT%)

Russell Branyan (1% SBA%, 26% XBT%)

Casey Kotchman (0.3% SBA%, 29% XBT%)

Josh Wilson [assuming he has significantly reduced playing time] (3.9% SBA%, 32% XBT%)

There's a trend there; admittedly Jack Cust isn't a huge amount better on the basepaths, he's at least not Ken Griffey Jr., and Justin Smoak is at least not Casey Kotchman.  The other moves, replacing Jose Lopez and Rob Johnson, are huge improvements in that particular situation.  And consider this, on any particular day, if Brendan Ryan plays short and Milton Bradley is at DH, the only position on the team that wouldn't be capable of stealing a base, would be at 1st Base.  8 guys out of 9 being able to steal would be frustrating for an opposing team, and could potentially be very helpful for the running teams offense, provided they could reach base often enough.