Stolen Base Times

There is a new section in The Bill James Handbook 2016, coming out on November 1st, called Stolen Base Times. It features the average time it takes to get from first base to second base on an attempted steal for every player that had at least six stolen base attempts in 2015. With the World Series about to start, this data seems particularly relevant given the two teams that are about to face off: the Royals and Mets.

We are familiar with how dynamic the Royals can be with the likes of Jarrod Dyson, Lorenzo Cain, and Terrance Gore flying around the bases. Last year, the Royals led MLB with 189 stolen base attempts and 153 successful steals during the regular season, and they lapped their postseason counterparts with 18 stolen base attempts and 14 successful steals. The next highest total was the Giants, the other team that made it to the World Series, with eight stolen base attempts and only four successful steals. This year, in 2015, the Royals haven’t been quite as aggressive, but they still finished the regular season with the eighth most attempted steals (138) and the fifth most stolen bases (104) in MLB.

Here are the average stolen base times of second base for the Royals players that had at least six timed stolen base attempts in 2015:

The Mets have generally been a far less aggressive team than the Royals when it comes to stealing bases. They ranked 29th in all of baseball in 2015 in both total stolen base attempts (76) and successful stolen bases (51), topping only the Orioles in each category. However, in the postseason, they have surprised everyone with their energized running game, leading all teams with 11 stolen base attempts and being tied for the lead in successful steals with 9.

Here are the average stolen base times of second base for the Mets players that had at least six timed stolen base attempts in 2015:

For information on Stolen Base Times for other players in the league, as well as much more fun and interesting baseball data, The Bill James Handbook 2016 is available for pre-order by following this link.