This is my first fanpost, so hopefully I've followed the rules and not embarrassed myself to much.  Here goes.

Is anyone else concerned with how slow this team has become?  I had not even thought about it until this morning when I read this article over at Bleacher Report, where Brandon Erickson suggests getting Crede to improve our still glaring hole at 3rd base.

After doing a little bit of research I discovered we are on pace to have the slowest* Twins team in my recent memory (I was only 4yrs old in 1984 so it doesn't count).   Last year as many of you probably can remember we had a grand total of 85 stolen bases, which is our lowest total since 2002 when we had 79.  After looking at the total amount of stolen bases (last year) per player on our starting roster this year, we are looking at 60 stolen bases!  Which is actually what CHONE projects for us also this year (from the starting lineup).  The last time we stole so few of bases was 1985 when we stole 68.  Also, the 60 stolen bases is factoring in that Punto will get 392 AB (which is up from last yr where he had 359 AB).  I know Punto has his faults, but subtract him from the lineup and we are hands down the slowest team on the base paths in the majors.

The stolen base leaders on our team last year were:

Span - 23

Punto - 16

Gomez - 14

Casilla - 11

So with Gomez now gone, replaced by Hardy (who has a total of 5 career SB) and with Casilla possibly gone or at the least a full time bench warmer replaced by Hudson (8 SB, 50 career SB) there is no doubt the team is slower than last year.  This of course is not even including Thome, which the addition of only makes us more station to station.

So I guess my questions are, does acquiring Crede make us better?  The defense improves, but we would obviously become even slower, since other then Span, Punto is our biggest base stealing threat.  For that matter, would adding Valencia then hurt us both defensively and on the base paths?  Does speed translate into wins?  And lastly, were we really slower last year or was it just us being more conservative on the base paths? 

I wish I could bust out with some stats proving this and that but alas, my inferior mind can not wrap it's head around it.  I am hopeful someone with a more stat based mind can help shed some light on this for me.   I know I for one certainly worry about it our speed, but hopefully it's just me worrying.

*I know stolen bases are probably not the best gage of team speed, but I'm sure it paints an accurate enough picture.