The pro stealers like Rickey and Raines and Coleman are also an extinct breed, those who made it their job to study moves and tendencies and film and etc.; all that stuff is now mostly a series of lost arts. So now it’s the lower-end guys who get a lot more steals but the league leaders are still where they were before the rules change.
I know if Rickey were still playing he’d be salivating at all the opportunities he’d be getting, and if still alive would be laughing at these pathetically low league leading totals.
I sorted by SB (stolen bases), and counted up how many teams had at least 160 steals (since there are only today’s and tomorrow’s games left for the season); I then eyeballed the next column (Caught Stealing), and mentally added the two numbers together for each team, to see how many had at least 160 attempts (steals + caught stealing).
Thank you for that. It shows that, in 2022 (the last year before the rule changes), teams averaged 0.68 steal attempts per game (0.51 successful steals, 0.17 caught stealings). Steal attempts went up substantially starting in 2023, and have been fairly steady for the past three seasons at around 0.90 attempts/game. Successful steals went up by about 40% versus pre-2023 levels, while “caught stealings” went up only slightly.
The Brewers are currently losing to the Reds, 7-2, thanks in part to two errors. But, as the Phillies were blanked by the Twins tonight, Milwaukee has now clinched the #1 seed in the NL, and home-field advantage.
Hahaha. The Guardians won the game with a walk, bloop single to left that barely landed in front of the left fielder, intentional walk, then a walk off hit by pitch. All with 2 outs. That is just such a Guardians way to score a run, win the game, and clinch a playoff birth.
I am hoping Detroit beats my Sox today so the latter can play here in Cleveland this upcoming week. Otherwise I’ll have to hope they win their Wild Card series and play here the following week (or in Detroit, if I am brave enough to drive there, preferably for a day game).
Yanks, Toronto and Red Sox all won. So no changes there.
In a weird way, I’m kind of glad the Yanks didn’t take the division. I think the 5 days off might have hurt the team.
On the other hand we lost the season series to the Sox and the winner of the Wildcard series faces Toronto who the Yanks also lost the season series to. So this is going to be rough no matter what.
This picture will probably change, but here is how things look right now.
I’ve noticed that Rickjay hasn’t been posting the MLB threads for awhile. I hope all is well, and congrats on the Blue Jays winning the East. The Yanks furious finish made all the end of season games worth watching. I am not looking forward to seeing Crochet on Tuesday but here we go.
