Miguel Dilone – Part 2 (1978)
Posted by Raphy on February 24, 2009
On Sunday, Steve presented a record held by Miguel Dilone. This led me to take a closer look Dilone's numbers and, believe it or not, he actually holds another record and its not even close.
Here are the players who have been caught stealing at least 20 times in one season sorted by the number of times that they reached base.
Cnt Player **TOB** CS Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB BA OBP SLG OPS Positions +----+-----------------+-------+--+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+ 1 Miguel Dilone 83 23 1978 23 OAK AL 135 292 258 34 59 8 0 1 14 23 0 30 1 10 0 2 50 .229 .294 .271 .565 798/5 2 Mike Edwards 131 21 1978 25 OAK AL 142 446 414 48 113 16 2 1 23 16 0 32 2 14 0 7 27 .273 .303 .329 .632 *4/6 3 Jimmy Walsh 140 21 1914 28 TOT AL 111 439 352 48 77 12 9 4 47 59 0 48 4 24 0 0 12 .219 .337 .338 .675 *78/9 4 Cliff Heathcote 150 24 1924 26 CHC NL 113 433 392 66 121 19 7 0 30 28 0 28 1 12 0 0 26 .309 .356 .393 .749 *98/7 5 Jimmy Austin 152 23 1914 34 SLB AL 130 523 466 55 111 16 4 0 30 40 0 59 1 16 0 0 20 .238 .300 .290 .590 *5 6 Buck Weaver 158 20 1914 23 CHW AL 136 576 541 64 133 20 9 2 28 20 0 40 5 10 0 0 14 .246 .279 .327 .606 *6 7 Hal Janvrin 158 20 1914 21 BOS AL 145 553 492 65 117 18 6 1 51 38 0 50 3 20 0 0 29 .238 .296 .305 .601 436/5 8 Claudell Washingt 159 20 1976 21 OAK AL 134 530 490 65 126 20 6 5 53 30 1 90 3 3 4 13 37 .257 .302 .353 .655 *98/D 9 Cecil Espy 162 20 1989 26 TEX AL 142 527 475 65 122 12 7 3 31 38 2 99 2 10 2 2 45 .257 .313 .331 .644 *8/D79 10 Clyde Milan 163 21 1914 27 WSH AL 115 481 437 63 129 19 11 1 39 32 0 26 2 10 0 0 38 .295 .346 .396 .742 *8/7
In 1978 Miguel Dilone reached base 83 times an was caught stealing 23. No one else has ever been caught stealing 20 or more times and reached base less than 131 times. And while Dilone did do some pinch running , even if you add his 47 pinch runs to his times on base, he is still one less than Mike Edwards ('78), the #2 man on the list.
On the flip side, during that season Dilone also stole 50 bases, making him the player with the fewest times on base and 50 or more SB. Here however, we can not ignore the pinch runs. Otis Nixon (1990), the number 2 man on this list, who reached base only 3 times more than Dilone, pinch ran 21 times less.
February 24th, 2009 at 3:42 am
So half of the top (or should I say, bottom) ten made the list in 1914? That suggests that a lot more ballplayers racked up the CS back then, and it also suggests that our only data from that era is from that one season (maybe even that one league in that one season) - is that right? If so, it further suggests that if we had data for all those missing years, we might find a challenger for Dilone. Dilone would then not be unique, he would just be a throwback to an earlier age.
February 24th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Caught Stealing was counted in the AL 1914-1916, and 1920 to present. In the NL 1915-1916, 1920-1925, 1951-present. It does look bizarre that so many of those top numbers would all be from 1914. Of course, there was more base stealing at that time, and I think a lot of hit-and-running as well (check the Bill James book on managers on that). The 1370 caught stealings in 1914 AL (more than one per game) are far and away the most in any season they've been counted.
March 1st, 2009 at 11:52 am
I believe Dilone is still the only player with 50 steals and 0 triples in a season. He only had 8 doubles. OK, he only played about half a season. So his steal total is incredible! But still, talk about having NO power!