Trivial Rays Note About Steals

by R.J. Anderson on Nov 30, 2008 11:07 PM EST Comment 3 comments

Digging through assorted Rays history in a database, I wanted to find out how often Carl Crawford attempted a steal. More specifically, I wanted the percentage of times on base that Crawford ran. If you recall I figured something similar a few weeks ago, but I wanted to also see where he ranked in Rays history.

Much to my surprise, when I lowered the times on base threshold to 10 (SSS, I know) Nathan Haynes name popped up. Haynes reached based 13 times this season, and attempted five steals. Of course, that doesn't account for Haynes pinch running, and I don't have the play-by-play database abilities to filter that down, so take it for what it is.

After my near Haynes experience, I turned back to the original question. You shouldn't be surprised to learn that Crawford dominates the list, with his highest being 33.5% in 2004. Here's a list of the top 10:

Player	Year	SB	CS	H	BB	HBP	TOB	SBA	SBP
Crawford	2004	59	15	185	35	1	221	74	0.3348
Crawford	2003	55	10	177	26	1	204	65	0.3186
Winn	1998	26	12	94	29	1	124	38	0.3065
Crawford	2006	58	9	183	37	4	224	67	0.2991
Tyner	2001	31	6	111	15	3	129	37	0.2868
Crawford	2007	50	10	184	32	5	221	60	0.2715
Cairo	2000	28	7	98	29	2	129	35	0.2713
Upton	2008	44	16	145	97	2	244	60	0.2459
Crawford	2005	46	8	194	27	5	226	54	0.2389
Crawford	2008	25	7	121	30	2	153	32	0.2092

On the other hand, how about the guys who got on base 100+ times, aren't catchers, and got the steal sign the least? Here you go:

Player	Year	SB	CS	H	BB	HBP	TOB	SBA	SBP
Canseco	1999	3	0	120	58	7	185	3	0.0162
Trammell	1999	0	2	82	43	1	126	2	0.0159
Cantu	2006	1	1	103	26	3	132	2	0.0152
McGriff	2001	1	1	109	40	0	149	2	0.0134
Pena	2008	1	1	121	96	12	229	2	0.0087
McGriff	2000	2	0	157	91	0	248	2	0.0081
Boggs	1999	1	0	88	38	0	126	1	0.0079
Cantu	2005	1	0	171	19	6	196	1	0.0051
Pena	2007	1	0	138	103	10	251	1	0.004
McGriff	1999	1	0	164	86	1	251	1	0.004

Cantu is the only one of these players who was not in the latter stages of his career (or at least older than 28), yet somehow he was listed twice. God blessed that Human Lawn Statue, just not with speed.

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Comments

Hey R.J.

Love your work both here and at BTB. But just wanted to ask, wasn’t Crawford on significantly more than that? When you consider errors and fielder’s choices (and as you said, pinch-running) it seems there would be a significant number of extra times on base not included in the table. Also, while unlikely, Crawford may have attempted to steal both second and third a couple of times. Also, a couple of uncontrolled variables, but this method penalizes power hitters, because you’re much less likely to steal after an XBH, and guys in offenses, because there will be other guys on base “clogging the bases”.

Also, I think you should subtract HR’s, since you cant exactly steal after those. Well, maybe Jason Bartlett could. He’s THAT valuable. ;-)

But keep up the interesting analysis. When you can get a Dodger fan on a Rays blog, you’re doing a good job. Oh, and STOP taking our prospects!!! ;-)

by Brendan Scolari on Dec 1, 2008 5:16 AM EST reply actions 0 recs