Baserunning bloopers and blunders: a 2009 Astros retrospective

The baserunning mistakes of 2009 were well-documented in roundabout terms. Today, we break those down and get into specifics of how bad a baserunning team the Astros were.

Note: This took a ridiculously long time. I went game-by-game through the play-by-play on Baseball Reference. So keep in mind there's a chance that I missed something, some of the numbers might not quite add up, so I'll give this a 90% chance of being 100% accurate.

Lance Berkman - 9 baserunning outs
Doubled off first (1)
Caught stealing second (2)
Caught stealing third (2)
Thrown out at home (3)
Out stretching double into triple (1)

Geoff Blum - 3
Doubled off first (1)
Caught stealing second (1)
Thrown out at home (1)

Aaron Boone - 1
Thrown out at home (1)

Michael Bourn - 19
Caught stealing second (6)
Picked off first (2*)
Picked off second (1)
Picked off third (1)
Out stretching single into double (2)
Out stretching double into triple (1)
Out at third on groundball (1)
Caught stealing third (3)
Doubled off first (3)
(* - safe in one instance on error by pitcher)

Chris Coste - 1
Thrown out at home (1)

Darin Erstad -3
Caught stealing second (2)
Out at third on ground ball (1)

Jeff Keppinger - 3
Picked off second (1)
Caught stealing second (2)

Carlos Lee - 9
Caught stealing second (2)
Thrown out at home (1)
Out going first to third (1)
Out stretching single into double (3)
Out advancing to third on sac fly (1)
Caught stealing third (1)

Kaz Matsui - 4
Doubled off second (1)
Caught stealing second (2)
Picked off first (1)

Edwin Maysonet - 1
Thrown out at home (1)

Jason Michaels - 5
Picked off second (1)
Out stretching double into triple (1)
Doubled off first (1)
Thrown out at home (1)
Caught stealing second (1)

Roy Oswalt - 1
Out stretching single into double (1)

Hunter Pence - 15
Thrown out taking extra base (1)
Out stretching single into double (1)
Out stretching double into triple (1)
Caught stealing second (9)
Caught stealing third (2)
Thrown out at home (1)

Humberto Quintero - 1
Thrown out at home (1)

Ivan Rodriguez - 2
Caught stealing second (2)

Miguel Tejada - 7
Caught stealing 2nd (2)
Out stretching single into double (3)
Thrown out at home (1)
Out advancing to third on groundball (1)

From this list, I counted 74 outs made on the basepaths, 12 of those made at home plate. It makes sense that Bourn and Pence would be the top two players with baserunning outs as they're the fastest, and youngest, on the team. I also noticed that in the second half of the season, they made far fewer baserunning outs than in the first half. And April was just brutal. What happened there? Trying to be aggressive at the outset, pressing to have a good first month of the season? Giving up in the second half? Arguments could be made from all of these...