Top Base Stealers in the Majors going into 2025. Major leagues Part One

Top Base Stealers in the Majors going into 2025. Major leagues

    Nobody in the all-time top hundred. Stolen bases are harder to come by now. Maybe it has to do with pitchers and catchers being more athletic, too? We already discussed that the advent of the home run (due to changes in the maintenance and properties of the baseball after a short stop's tragic death when beamed with a bad one) in the 1920s. But power and the long ball got even more substantial in the 1990s. Faster pitches? If you get hold of one, it will jump. Also, like the 1920s, some claimed the ball was getting juiced. Speaking of juiced, players were injecting steroids and getting more length from bat speed and strength, albeit artificial and cheating.

    Why run and steal second when the guy up at bat is going to crank it? By not risking the out at second, there is better chance of scoring by just avoiding an unnecessary out. 

    Who do we got? Starling Marte. Age 35. A career total of 354 out of 452 attempts. Tied with Buck Ewing and Gary Pettis for 106th all time. Ewing retired at age 37 in 1897. The World Series had not been developed yet. Who did he play for? Started with the Troy Trojans, then the New York Giants, then Cleveland, then the Cincinnati Reds. All before the turn of century. Guys ran a lot more back then. Maybe they were allowed like 4 or 5 strikes, too. Not sure. Need some research.

    Fewer teams back then, which could lead to more steals, maybe. If you knew the limited amount of pitchers that you had to face... Pettis played from 1982 to 1992. When Rickey and Rock Raines were doing their thing. He hit a career .236, so the implication was that he was a really fast runner and likely a great glove, but with only 21 career homeruns, he was a fast guy. Suffered from other liabilities. But in the 80s, many teams wanted a leadoff or other runners who could steal. In many other eras Pettis may never have had a chance, based on lack of average and power.

    Marte may get a few more. Last year he hit .269 with 16 stolen bases. Perhaps he plays another few years for the Mets, who seem to be spending big to be great? We shall see. If he gets to 400 stolen bases by the end, he will be 7

    Who is next in the current top 1,000 of stolen base leaders? Jose Altuve. This guy has all the tools, I think. Despite his very short stature. He is 34, got 22 last year, and is a clutch, great hitter. Lifetime .306 batting average with power. Tied at 156 with Brady Anderson, who had power, and Jake Beckley, who retired in: 1907. 

NEXT UPs, next post.

Base Stealers -- Who's Who On the Base Paths in the Major Leagues

    I have written about base stealers in the major leagues before. One reason (that I think about it) is because as a kid I valued speed, and my favorite players were fast and could steal bases. This was Tim Raines his rookie year since I was ten years-old.

    In the following decades there have been some changes in baseball, which includes increase of power and home runs, likely the lowering of hitting for average and on base percentage, and also the decrease of stolen bases.

    In the history of the major leagues, starting in the later 1800s when the official statistics of the game have been recorded, I believe the hay day of large numbers of stolen bases was from 1900 until 1920. This would explain why Ty Cobb and Billy Hamilton are among the top five in that category of all time now in 2025. After 1920 or so, as I learned from the Ken Burns baseball documentary, the home run became a bigger phenomenon for the reasons of keeping the baseball cleaner and refreshed, combined with the change of the bounciness of the ball. Runners of the base paths did not count as much as the home run increased for those decades, thus there was the surge of home run hitters like Babe Ruth and later Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, and Hank Aaron.

    Interestingly per my time, when I became more acutely aware of the sport and its players, and by default the patterns and trends of it, the 1980s featured some of the best and fastest baseball runners and stolen base leaders of all time: Rickey Henderson, the by far best stolen base statistical leader of all time, which will likely never be surpassed, my guy Tim Raines, and a couple other blazers like Vince Coleman, and maybe Willie Wilson and Otis Nixon. Even though the latter three did not hit for great average, their speed compensated for their below average batting skills.

    Lou Brock was the stolen base leader of his time, the 1960s into the 1970s. There have always been the best stolen base leaders of each generation, but I believe the three best decades of stolen bases were those: 1900-1920, and the 1980s. Power and the home run have led to the paucity of more stolen bases in both cases. The 1990s brought a time of many more home runs, which also, for the record, showed the proliferation of PEDs (Performance Enhancing Drugs), which lead to many more home run hitters and historically high numbers, by guys like Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, and Mark Mcguire. And of course, the best of all time, Barry Bonds. However, none of them have achieved placement in the Hall of Fame because it is perceived that they cheated to attain their status among the home run hitters.

    Sosa, Bonds, Arod, could run, and steal, but these acts did not have as much effect because of their effectiveness as hitters from home plate. 

    Part of the reason I am analyzing stolen bases the period after 2024 is Shohei Ohtani. This guy sort of exploded out of nowhere. We knew he was an elite hitter and pitcher. This is amazing in itself. To be great at both the batter's box and the mound is astounding. But this past season he stole 59! About seven years into his major league career, after starting in Japan, his previous high was maybe 20, which is likely a normal number for many players, even the ones who are not necessarily known as power or even superior hitters for average. There are exceptions. Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Jose Altuve, and a good list of others are complete five tool players who accrue high numbers of home runs, hitting for average, and stolen bases. But usually a player is either a great power hitter or they play "small ball", where they hit and walk for average and then are typically speedier on the bases.

    Trea Turner is incredibly fast. He steals bases more than hits home runs, for example. The better example of a small ball wonder was Ichiro Suzuki. He was a hits machine, did not hit many homers, and was fast enough to rack up many stolen bases, more than the average right fielder, for sure.

    Ohtani is now 28-29. Will he back up last season as an elite stolen base runner? Will others in the current generation ever approach the top ten in stolen base stats again?

    It does not seem likely. 

    Next post I will look at the best stolen base runners among the top 1,000 of all time, and we might project how they will finish in the history books. Again, though, the greatest years of base stealing is likely done with.

    Long live the stolen base. The art of speed and connivery. Craftiness and artful dodging, planning on generating runs by exploiting the defense and situation.

 Bob Uecker RIP; Thanks for all the Laughs

    He made it to 90. Almost 91. How many humans live that long? Maybe not enough. He had quite a life. I know he had some great affects on me. The combination of his baseball and humor was tremendous. 

    He was a truly funny guy, with great energy, which to me makes him a genius.

    Sometimes I think that the sport of baseball, and even other sports, but especially baseball, is a chance for all of us to talk to each other. We talk while watching it on TV, at the game from the stands, between coaches and players in the dugouts and bull pens... Even the opposing players talk to each other around the base paths. 

    I remember Uecker doing funny commercials back in the 1980s. His self-deprecating presence and personality was refreshing and so funny. He made me laugh, even more when interviewing and speaking in impromptu venues. Hilarious.

    Thanks for the laughter and the good times!

    I was thinking of all the people that have made me laugh. It is a very long list. Who and what makes us laugh? Why do we or not find things funny? What do we sound like when we laugh? How do we come across.

    It is usually a good thing, when it is not derisive or disrespectful.

    I am watching the best of him now, with my wife...

    Good times.

    Thanks again.

    See you up above, and I think I would love to have some more laughs.

Hoosier Men Be Stinky -- Basketball Team is Getting Whooped

    A lot of us had some high hopes in January. Despite struggling mightily in the earlier part of the season, losing embarrassingly to Louisville and another team in their tropical massacre of paradise, holding on to beat a so so Providence. They got whooped by Nebraska, away in the plains, as they usually do lately, because Indiana is no longer what we thought we had been... the 1970s, the 1980s, even the 1990s... Only a couple of teams this century have lived up to any Indiana nostalgia and wistful longing of championships. Ugh. Alas.

    I thought that we would have some good chances this year. Big man Oumar Ballo was supposed to bigger, better. Not really. At least he has improved his free throw shooting from the past. But his defense is not that great. Malik Reneau has been hurt, which has been good and bad. They learned to play without him, a powerful scoring forward inside, and beat Penn State and... who else? Rutgers, and... was it a lesser team like Minnesota? Oh, yeah, the other early losses now seem the norm, with Iowa in the plains again and now Illinois smashing us in the so-called friendly confines of Assembly Hall. 60-32 at the half. And then the second half surge could not even be sustained.

    Pathetic. We expected more out of these new guards from Washington State and Stanford. And Goode from Illinois. And what about Tre Galloway? Man! We cannot play well enough.

    Then there is the enigma Mackenzie Mbako. He should be playing so much better. He has disappeared for stretches of multiple games. Leal comes off the bench and brings some sparks but goofs up, too.

    I thought he was part of the IU renaissance. Mike Woodson and all them. It looks bad.

    We are desperate to play well, just comepetively.

    Maybe not this year, either.

    Maybe not this decade? Ever? When will the terrible losing end?

    Now, to be fair, Tennessee or undefeated Florida can get their wheels blown off on any given night. UConn and Duke and everyone else loses. But not like this.

    My Hoosiers are on the brink of being losers. Like too many years since.. 2002... or the early 1990s.

    Can we get better?

    Next up: struggling Ohio State. Stay tuned. Maybe.

    Ugh.

All You Need is 14 Saves to be Among the Best Thousand Closers of All Time

    Some baseball fans like stats, too. That is part of the charm. Maybe nerdy, maybe not so cool, but sometimes we like to investigate the numbers that been generating since the late 1800s.

    In all the years of baseball, truncated a few times because of strikes or pandemic shutdowns, or perhaps even a major terrorist attack, baseball plays so many games with so many various athletes that it can be interesting to break down, to chop up, to put in a fish bowl and gawk at.

    The "save" is a statistic earned by pitchers when they come in the end of a game and close out the side while maintaining the lead for the win. So, a classic example is a pitcher who comes in the 9th inning with a one run lead, mows down the three batters he faces, and the crowd, assuming this is the home pitcher, goes wild. He would earn a "save" if this team is up 4-1, because the three batters represent those potential three runs. However, if it is 5-1, and he strikes out all the batters, or gets them out, perhaps he does not get the save. Right?

    I or someone will have to check if I am right.

    If, on the other hand, a guy or two gets on base, or if he pitches over two innings, accounting for 6 outs, or 4 or 5, say, then the potential run scorers would add up to a save if the distance of runs to catch up were 4, or 5, or 6. Closer wins are imperative for pitchers to earn a save. Even giving up late runs is okay if the pitcher finishes the deal getting the win, say, giving up five runs but still winning, 6-5 or 11-10.

    Capiche? Makes sense? It makes sense to me. 

    What I find incredible is that in the day and age of almost no pitcher pitching an entire complete game, by throwing all nine innings (or perhaps a weather-shortened game would qualify in 6-8 innings) for the win, there are still a large number of pitchers--closers as it were-- that do not have many saves yet are still in the top thousand of all time.

    14 is the threshold, the bar! That is amazing to me.

    Contrast that with the top thousand home run hitters of all time, and now that bar is 100.

    Numbers of saves by a great pitcher in a great year can rival a really good home run year. A superb closer on a very competitive team can get 50 saves. Hitting 50 home runs in a season is great by any major league baseball standard. Shohei Ohtani did it this year, plus he stole than many bases, and had one of the best seasons for any baseball player of all time. He is an elite pitcher, too. He is a starter, so he does not normally qualify for saves. A pitcher can be brought in to save, at times, but normally more extreme situations, like in the playoffs or the world series. And, those stats do not count towards career totals, which is what we are talking about.

    The top closers statistically of all time have numbers that remind me of the best numbers of home run hitters, like Bonds and Ruth and Rodriguez, or now Pujols.

    The top closing pitchers with career saves are:

    

1.	Mariano Rivera+ (19)	652	1283.2	R
2.	Trevor Hoffman+ (18)	601	1089.1	R
3.	Lee Smith+ (18)	478	1289.1	R
4.	Kenley Jansen (15, 36)	447	868.1	R
5.	Craig Kimbrel (15, 36)	440	809.2	R
6.	Francisco Rodríguez (16)	437	976.0	R
7.	John Franco (21)	424	1245.2	L
8.	Billy Wagner (16)	422	903.0	L
9.	Dennis Eckersley+ (24)	390	3285.2	R
10.	Joe Nathan (16)	377	923.1	R
11.	Jonathan Papelbon (12)	368	725.2	R
12.	Jeff Reardon (16)	367	1132.1	R
13.	Troy Percival (14)	358	708.2	R
14.	Randy Myers (14)	347	884.2	L
15.	Rollie Fingers+ (17)	341	1701.1	R
16.	Aroldis Chapman (15, 36)	335	760.0	L
17.	John Wetteland (12)

Go to the site to see the rest, like Wetteland, that I did not capture fully.

    I get it that many pitchers cannot throw as hard as they do for endless years. Many guys blow out their arms, wear out their elbows or shoulders, and cannot get those monster seasons. There are many closers on each team; guys need rest and cannot always pitch. And wins can prove difficult, too. 

    But, 14? Who are the guys at the end of the list? When did they play?

    986.Al Aber (6)14389.1L

 Steve Barber (15)141999.0L 

Jesse Barnes (13)142569.2R 

Frank Baumann (11)14797.1L 

Matt Belisle (15)14928.2R 

Warren Brusstar (9)14484.2R 

Bud Byerly (11)14491.2R 

Greg Cadaret (10)14724.1L 

Dave Campbell (2)14158.0R 

Miguel Castro (10, 29)14460.2R 

Bob Chipman (12)14880.2L 

Alex Claudio (10)14348.0L 

Wilbur Cooper (15)143480.0L

 Roosevelt Davis (20)141537.2R 

Art Ditmar (9)141268.0R 

Pete Donohue (12)142112.1R 

Justin Duchscherer (8)14454.2R 

Bob Duliba (7)14257.0R 

Arnold Earley (8)14381.1L 

Jamie Easterly (13)14611.1L 

Harry Eisenstat (8)14478.2L 

Roenis Elías (7)14395.2L 

Lucas Erceg (2, 29)14116.2R 

John Ericks (3)14162.0R 

Wes Gardner (8)14466.1R 

Joe Grzenda (8)14308.0L 

Larry Gura (16)142047.0L

 Mark Guthrie (15)14978.2L 

Bill Hands (11)141951.0R 

Dwayne Henry (11)14334.2R 

Oral Hildebrand (10)141430.2R

 Tom Hilgendorf (6)14313.2L 

Howie Judson (7)14615.0R 

Justin Lawrence (4, 29)14194.0R 

Jensen Lewis (4)14198.0R 

Javier López (14)14533.1L 

Sal Maglie (10)141723.0R 

Chris Martin (9, 38)14346.2R 

Mickey McDermott (12)141316.2L 

Sam McDowell (15)142492.1L 

George McQuillan (10)141576.1R

 Andy Messersmith (12)142230.1R 

Mike Myers (13)14541.2L 

Art Nehf (15)142707.2L

 Al Osuna (6)14192.2L 

George Pipgras (11)141488.1R

 Mel Queen (9)14389.2R 

Eppa Rixey+ (21)144494.2L 

Nap Rucker (10)142375.1L 

Ray Scarborough (10)141428.2R 

Charley Schanz (5)14626.2R 

Chuck Seelbach (4)14130.2R 

Jim Slaton (16)142683.2R 

Carson Smith (5)14102.0R 

Lil Stoner (9)141003.2R

 Lon Warneke (15)142782.1R 

Les Webber (6)14432.0R 

Harry Wright+ (7)14100.1R

    A few Hall of Famers in there. They had to be starters, we must surmise. Harry Wright, the last one listed with 14 saves. Maybe this season, 2025, the bar will rise with the present closers getting more saves. That is the way of states, especially in a day and age when closers and mid-relievers are coming in at all points of the game. Close games favor the closer, when it comes to these stats, and one dominant guy and team like Mariano Rivera or Lee Smith can mean a lot.

    Eric Gagne in Los Angelese was an interesting case, because he flamed so bright but then lost his predominance. Or Thigpen with the White Sox in the early 1990s. Or Eckersley, or a litany of others.

    Who are the most dominant closers of all time? Who have been the save masters, meisters of the close?

    Maybe nerd on that for a while.

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 Global Warming: It's a Thing

    I think that a lot of willfully ignorant or stupid people ignore the basic and nuanced scientific evidence that the temperatures of the earth are going up, over decade--that we humans are doing it, and global warming affects current weather patterns and exacerbates natural phenomena, to include worse catastrophic results in hurricanes, winds, fires. Some ocean temperatures have heated up and killed off millions or billions of sea creatures and other life in the seas.

    This past week large parts of Los Angeles burnt up in awful fires. The fires are still going. Today is Saturday. There were Santa Ana winds pushing the fires to sweep vast swathes of neighborhoods getting up to 100 miles per hour. In January. Why? Higher ocean temperatures lead to higher amounts of warm winds. There is a lack of water, from previous droughts, and the embers wreck havoc across California.

    Higher ocean temperatures. Why? Hotter global temperatures from all types of mankind causes, from fossil fuels and engines burning up their gases that work on the air quality, to all kinds of heat entering through the atmosphere that is weakened by carbon dioxides or chlorofluorocarbons, and all other manner of pollutants and toxins, plus the destruction of our natural environments, the trees or corals or ocean life (plastics and other contaminants killing off ocean habitats), plus the over killing of plants and animals by fishermen, or oil depletion, or maybe even all the cruise ships.

    Plants, vehicles, all of us burning up things, plus depleting lands and lakes and lowlands with less trees and bushes and water ways, plus the very cattle that emit their gases that ruin the air and lands.

    I am an environmentalist, and a Republican, which should not be an oxymoron.

    We can be intelligent and conservative. A conservative should want to preserve our planet, our natural resources, and be efficient in producing and consuming energy.

    I read a book about Greenland. The huge ice sheets have been melting and heating up for decades.

    We are the cause, and we must slow it down. Antarctica, the same. Ice is melting. The oceans are rising and getting more polluted and are warming.

    Don't stick your head under a rock or in the sand. 

    Wake up and don't be a dummy. We need to save our planet and burn less fossil fuels.

    We need to clean up our acts.

    Admit it.