What about Brett Gardner?

His biggest criticism is his lack of power - his career minor league slugging percentage is a measly .374, lower than his on-base percentage (.381). He's hit six homers in over 1100 at-bats.

But his best attribute is his plus-plus speed, and proponents point to this as a reason he can be a ML regular, perhaps the Yanks everyday centerfielder. But again, his lack of power might hold him back.

How can we take speed into account when calculating a hitter's value? Perhaps adding in one total base for every steal, and subtracting one for every caught stealing. This increases Gardner's (and other weak speedster's) slugging percentage into very respectable territory.

Instead of a .374 SLG, Gardner's slugging percentage would look like such:

161 xbh (4 x HR + 3 x 3b + 2 x 2b) + 256 1b = 417 TB
116 SB - 22 CS = 94 SB
511 TB/1115 AB = .458 SLG

That's roughly the same as Derek Jeter last year, who, using the same SLG equation, had a .463 SLG. It's also the same as Adam Laroche, and better than Kevin Youkilis, Nick Swisher and Travis Hafner (in 2007). (Bear in mind, of course, that I'm using Gardner minor league numbers.)

Admittedly, a steal of 2nd is not as valuable as a double, because a double (like all extra-base hits) has a chance to score a baserunner. But speed doesn't show up in a player's ability to tag up, it causes throwing errors, and beats out GIDPs. So perhaps they are somewhat akin, and there is something to be said for adding steals into SLG.