Most stolen bases against a pitcher
Posted by Andy on December 24, 2007
For the 2007 season, here are the leaders among pitcher for most stolen bases allowed:
Cnt Player **SB** Year Age Tm Lg G GS CG SHO GF W L W-L% SV IP H R ER BB SO ERA ERA+ HR BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP CS Pk BK WP BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ Pit Str +----+-----------------+-------+----+---+---+--+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+-----+--+-----+---+---+---+---+---+------+----+--+----+----+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+----+----+ 1 Chris Young 44 2007 28 SDP NL 30 30 0 0 0 9 8 .529 0 173 118 66 60 72 167 3.12 129 10 705 616 19 8 0 7 3 6 9 0 2 4 7 .192 .281 .297 .578 60 2884 1844 2 Tim Wakefield 41 2007 40 BOS AL 31 31 0 0 0 17 12 .586 0 189 191 104 100 64 110 4.76 100 22 800 724 47 3 1 4 2 6 14 8 0 0 10 .264 .325 .428 .753 92 2881 1858 3 Greg Maddux 37 2007 41 SDP NL 34 34 1 0 0 14 11 .560 0 198 221 92 91 25 104 4.14 98 14 830 776 47 8 3 6 15 8 14 2 1 0 5 .285 .309 .420 .729 98 2704 1855 4 A.J. Burnett 31 2007 30 TOR AL 25 25 2 0 0 10 8 .556 0 165.2 131 74 69 66 176 3.75 119 23 691 611 19 1 2 12 0 2 19 0 0 0 5 .214 .302 .362 .664 75 2649 1625 5 Dustin McGowan 29 2007 25 TOR AL 27 27 2 1 0 12 10 .545 0 169.2 146 80 77 61 144 4.08 109 14 705 636 27 3 3 2 0 6 13 1 0 0 13 .230 .296 .347 .643 70 2702 1659 6 Brandon Webb 26 2007 28 ARI NL 34 34 4 3 0 18 10 .643 0 236.1 209 91 79 72 194 3.01 156 12 975 883 42 4 6 5 9 6 20 9 1 0 3 .237 .296 .334 .630 63 3436 2228 7 Jose Contreras 25 2007 35 CHW AL 32 30 2 2 2 10 17 .370 0 189 232 134 117 62 113 5.57 85 21 858 763 39 5 1 15 8 10 19 6 0 0 3 .304 .364 .451 .815 110 2999 1887 8 Mike Mussina 24 2007 38 NYY AL 28 27 0 0 0 11 10 .524 0 152 188 90 87 35 91 5.15 87 14 656 605 49 1 2 4 6 6 18 3 0 0 1 .311 .349 .464 .813 112 2393 1575 9 Daniel Cabrera 24 2007 26 BAL AL 34 34 1 0 0 9 18 .333 0 204.1 207 133 126 108 166 5.55 83 25 922 781 37 2 6 15 13 5 21 4 0 2 7 .265 .363 .414 .777 103 3564 2069 10 Rich Hill 23 2007 27 CHC NL 32 32 0 0 0 11 8 .579 0 195 170 89 85 63 183 3.92 119 27 812 724 32 1 3 12 9 4 14 5 4 1 1 .235 .305 .394 .699 81 3073 2033
Umm, 44 seems like an awful lot to me. If a staff of 5 starters each allowed 44 in a season, that would be 220 opposing stolen bases, and the Mets led this year with 200 SB (second place was Baltimore with 144.)
Not surprisingly, a bunch of the same names show up on the list for highest SB% allowed in 2007 (among starters qualified for the ERA title):
Cnt Player **SB%** Year Age Tm Lg G GS CG SHO GF W L W-L% SV IP H R ER BB SO ERA ERA+ HR BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ Pit Str +----+-----------------+--------+----+---+---+--+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+-----+--+-----+---+---+---+---+---+------+----+--+----+----+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+----+----+ 1 A.J. Burnett 1.00 2007 30 TOR AL 25 25 2 0 0 10 8 .556 0 165.2 131 74 69 66 176 3.75 119 23 691 611 19 1 2 12 0 2 19 31 0 0 0 5 .214 .302 .362 .664 75 2649 1625 2 Chris Young 1.00 2007 28 SDP NL 30 30 0 0 0 9 8 .529 0 173 118 66 60 72 167 3.12 129 10 705 616 19 8 0 7 3 6 9 44 0 2 4 7 .192 .281 .297 .578 60 2884 1844 3 Jeff Suppan 1.00 2007 32 MIL NL 34 34 1 0 0 12 12 .500 0 206.2 243 113 106 68 114 4.62 97 18 919 815 60 3 10 11 14 11 23 7 0 0 0 7 .298 .356 .445 .801 109 3325 2071 4 Dustin McGowan 0.97 2007 25 TOR AL 27 27 2 1 0 12 10 .545 0 169.2 146 80 77 61 144 4.08 109 14 705 636 27 3 3 2 0 6 13 29 1 0 0 13 .230 .296 .347 .643 70 2702 1659 5 Greg Maddux 0.95 2007 41 SDP NL 34 34 1 0 0 14 11 .560 0 198 221 92 91 25 104 4.14 98 14 830 776 47 8 3 6 15 8 14 37 2 1 0 5 .285 .309 .420 .729 98 2704 1855 6 Chad Gaudin 0.92 2007 24 OAK AL 34 34 1 0 0 11 13 .458 0 199.1 205 108 98 100 154 4.42 95 21 886 769 40 8 8 8 3 6 26 12 1 0 1 3 .267 .354 .421 .775 110 3290 1984 7 Jason Marquis 0.91 2007 28 CHC NL 34 33 1 1 0 12 9 .571 0 191.2 190 111 98 76 109 4.60 101 22 846 743 40 4 6 13 13 1 19 20 2 0 0 3 .256 .335 .409 .744 92 3027 1870 8 Jake Peavy 0.91 2007 26 SDP NL 34 34 0 0 0 19 6 .760 0 223.1 169 67 63 68 240 2.54 159 13 898 812 31 7 5 6 5 7 16 21 2 1 0 4 .208 .272 .312 .584 61 3609 2349 9 Cole Hamels 0.88 2007 23 PHI NL 28 28 2 0 0 15 5 .750 0 183.1 163 72 69 43 177 3.39 136 25 743 687 37 1 4 3 5 5 13 14 2 2 0 5 .237 .283 .403 .686 76 2791 1911 10 Matt Morris 0.88 2007 32 TOT NL 32 32 3 0 0 10 11 .476 0 198.2 240 123 108 61 102 4.89 90 18 884 795 61 4 4 9 10 8 24 15 2 0 0 4 .302 .355 .457 .812 114 3037 1943
Wow, Burnett allowed 31 steals without a CS, Young allowed 44 without a CS, and Suppan allowed 7 without a CS. To a degree, the catchers might be to blame, but more than likely these pitchers have slower deliveries and/or are more "readable" by the baserunners.
As long as we're looking at it, here are the best caught stealing percentages for the year, also among starters qualified for the ERA title:
Cnt Player **SB%** Year Age Tm Lg G GS CG SHO GF W L W-L% SV IP H R ER BB SO ERA ERA+ HR BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ Pit Str +----+-----------------+--------+----+---+---+--+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+-----+--+-----+---+---+---+---+---+------+----+--+----+----+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+----+----+ 1 Jon Garland 0.25 2007 27 CHW AL 32 32 2 1 0 10 13 .435 0 208.1 219 114 98 57 98 4.23 112 19 883 812 46 7 3 4 3 7 20 2 6 1 0 1 .270 .318 .414 .732 89 3297 2095 2 Bronson Arroyo 0.33 2007 30 CIN NL 34 34 1 0 0 9 15 .375 0 210.2 232 109 99 63 156 4.23 110 28 921 828 53 2 6 13 10 7 12 3 6 2 0 4 .280 .338 .450 .788 103 3432 2202 3 Tom Glavine 0.38 2007 41 NYM NL 34 34 1 1 0 13 8 .619 0 200.1 219 102 99 64 89 4.45 96 23 855 780 38 8 2 4 5 2 21 5 8 2 0 2 .281 .338 .438 .776 107 3338 1938 4 Mark Buehrle 0.40 2007 28 CHW AL 30 30 3 1 0 10 9 .526 0 201 208 86 81 45 115 3.63 131 22 835 773 44 2 5 5 7 5 20 2 3 5 0 1 .269 .312 .417 .729 87 3102 1997 5 Adam Wainwright 0.43 2007 25 STL NL 32 32 1 0 0 14 12 .538 0 202 212 93 83 70 136 3.70 119 13 882 789 47 4 4 9 9 5 19 6 8 1 0 6 .269 .333 .388 .721 91 3173 1971 6 Jeremy Guthrie 0.44 2007 28 BAL AL 32 26 0 0 3 7 5 .583 0 175.1 165 78 72 47 123 3.70 125 23 723 662 37 1 2 4 4 6 18 4 5 1 1 8 .249 .300 .412 .712 85 2681 1709 7 Gil Meche 0.44 2007 28 KCR AL 34 34 1 0 0 9 13 .409 0 216 218 98 88 62 156 3.67 128 22 906 829 37 4 2 3 5 7 20 4 5 2 0 3 .263 .314 .397 .711 84 3584 2287 8 C.C. Sabathia 0.50 2007 26 CLE AL 34 34 4 1 0 19 7 .731 0 241 238 94 86 37 209 3.21 143 20 975 918 60 1 1 8 6 6 23 10 10 0 0 1 .259 .292 .392 .684 76 3581 2377 9 Doug Davis 0.50 2007 31 ARI NL 33 33 0 0 0 13 12 .520 0 192.2 211 100 91 95 144 4.25 111 21 862 750 40 4 7 5 10 2 23 6 6 7 1 10 .281 .365 .429 .794 105 3356 1968 10 Carlos Silva 0.53 2007 28 MIN AL 33 33 2 1 0 13 14 .481 0 202 229 99 94 36 89 4.19 103 20 848 797 41 7 2 4 6 5 24 8 7 0 1 4 .287 .319 .432 .751 99 3057 1996
What you notice is that very few stolen bases were attempted against these pitchers. Sabathia allowed the most out of this group, and that's just 10 SB. I imagine teams were inclined to run against Sabathia since it was fairly difficult to get runners into scoring postion against him by other means. But like a lot of hard throwers, C.C. has a quick delivery and is pretty hard to steal against.
By the way, 7 different pitchers allowed 5 stolen bases in a single game this year:
Cnt Player Date Tm Opp GmReslt App,Dec IP H R ER BB SO HR Pit Str GmSc IR IS BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP **SB** CS Pk BK WP ERA +----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+---------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+------+--+--+--+--+------+ 1 Ben Sheets 2007-09-14 MIL CIN L 5-6 GS-3 ,L 3 6 5 5 2 3 1 50 30 28 17 14 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 5 0 0 0 0 15.00 2 Gavin Floyd 2007-09-05 CHW @DET L 1-2 GS-6 6 6 1 1 2 6 1 90 53 60 27 24 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 1.50 3 Jake Peavy 2007-08-22 SDP @NYM W 7-5 GS-6 ,W 6 2 2 2 5 11 0 101 68 66 26 21 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 1 3.00 4 Dustin McGowan 2007-08-11 TOR @KCR L 1-4 GS-7 ,L 6.1 6 4 3 1 4 1 100 63 50 27 25 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 5 0 0 0 0 4.26 5 Chris Young 2007-06-29 SDP @LAD W 7-6 GS-6 ,W 6 7 2 2 1 9 0 113 82 58 26 25 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 1 0 3.00 6 Mike Mussina 2007-06-24 NYY @SFG L 2-7 GS-5 ,L 5 5 3 2 3 5 0 105 63 49 24 19 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 5 0 0 0 0 3.60 7 Joe Blanton 2007-05-27 OAK @BAL L 4-8 GS-6 ,L 6 10 8 8 1 2 3 110 68 21 30 29 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 12.00
Ben Sheets did it in just 3 innings!
December 24th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
The most obvious one upon 'simple' inspection would be Wakefield because of the knuckle ball! How does Phil
Neikro's #'s look over his career ?
December 24th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
Can anyone tell me how to find flyball/groundball ratios for batters and pitchers and also pull/opposite field percentages? Can’t seem to find these breakdowns on baseball-reference.com and need them for LaRussa baseball game…please help!! [email protected]
December 24th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
It is strange that there has been no discussion about the differences between LEFTY and RIGHTY pitchers in their propensity to allow stolen bases.
December 24th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
I was intending no disrespect by putting a thread topic in quotes.
Of those who allowed most steals or a high percentage, three (of 16?) are lefties: Hill, Marquis, and Hamels.
Of those whose caught stealing % was best, four (of 10) are lefties: Glavine, Buehrle, Sabathia, Davis.
This is probably not news, but perhaps worth noting.
December 25th, 2007 at 7:45 am
I think it's tough to compare SB% for lefties and righties because the numbers do not reveal much about what the opposing teams think and plan. For example, Any Pettitte and Terry Mulholland are two lefties who have (had?) fantastic pickoff moves. Both had years with a lot (10+) of pickoffs and years with very low stolen-base percentage. Then, teams simply stopped running on these guys because they were too hard to read and their pickoff moves were too good. But, then the fastest runners figured out how to run on them, and I think both guys, later in their careers, have had years similar to 7 attempted steals and 7 successful steals (i.e. no caught stealings.) So that's 100% success rate against them, but at a low overall level. My point is just that there is lot more to this particular stat than the numbers.