An advanced metric says the Angels are poor base runners, but Mike Scioscia disagrees

One hundred and twenty games into the 2016 season, the Angels’ offense has been about average, their defense about average, and their pitching pretty poor. But among tracked facets of the sport, their worst relative to the rest has been base running, at least according to an advanced metric tracked by fangraphs.com.

Entering play Thursday, the Angels ranked 28th in baseball at 14.9 runs below average, according to the site’s base-running statistic. It counts stolen bases and caught-stealing totals, as well as double plays hit into and all other advancement on the basepaths.

Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said he does not consider certain outs on the basepaths to be mistakes, as some do.

“I think if you’re going to be an aggressive base-running team — and I think we’ve shown that — there are going to be some outs you’re going to run into,” Scioscia said Thursday.

The Angels offer positive and negative outliers. Center fielder Mike Trout is tied as the third-best base runner among baseball’s 156 qualified position players. Third baseman Yunel Escobar is the fourth-worst, behind two designated hitters, Boston’s David Ortiz and Detroit’s Victor Martinez, and Detroit first baseman Miguel Cabrera.

According to fangraphs.com’s estimation, Escobar’s base running would cost the Angels nine runs compared with an average runner over a full season. Asked about the 33-year-old, Scioscia attributed his standing to aggressiveness.

“Some of it’s cyclical. Some of it’s inherent in some bad reads,” he said. “In Yunel’s case, I think he’s run into some throws that have been right on the money.”

Asked then if Escobar’s base running was not a concern, Scioscia asked for the reporter’s definition of concern. Told concern would connote something the team was actively working to improve, Scioscia said his staff was working to improve all of his players’ base running “every second.”

“I don’t think anybody has their head buried in the sand,” he said. “If I say it’s not a concern, then you’ll say, ‘Well, these guys don’t care that they’ve run into outs.’ There’s a certain percentage of that that you want. We want to keep being aggressive.”

He continued: “Not that we’re burying our heads in the sand if somebody’s out by 30 feet, but I don’t think that’s what you’re seeing with Yunel. You’re seeing some plays that have been close. We want our guys to be aggressive and not be deterred when there’s a throw right on the money. I don’t think there have been the kind of things that would raise concern where you would have to try to drastically adjust what one guy does.”

Scioscia cited his club’s proficiency in going from first to third on singles as evidence of their success on the bases. They have done so the third-most times in the sport. But their overall extra-bases-taken percentage of 38% ranks below the 40% league average.

Short hops

Right-hander Cam Bedrosian (right middle finger tendinitis) played catch for the first time Thursday, from roughly 45 feet, and plans to amp it up Friday. He said he is probably going to rehab the injury at the Angels’ spring-training facility in Arizona during the team’s upcoming road trip.

pedro.moura@latimes.com

Twitter: @pedromoura