Mike and Barry (and Others) and Stolen Bases

I have been inundated with responses (5 "likes" and 2 comments on Facebook) to my post of two days ago comparing Mike Trout to Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, and Willie Mays at comparable stages in their careers.  One of the comments (and the guy who made it shall remain nameless) said that I should have included Stolen Bases.  So, in order to save this guy the trouble of looking it up himself, I present the following:

	Mike Trout	Hank Aaron	Barry Bonds	Mickey Mantle	Willie Mays
Stolen Bases	143	20	212	43	121
Caught Stealing	28	9	64	16	43
%	83.6	70.0	76.8	72.9	73.8

Again, these stats are from approximately the first six years and 800 or so games of each of the players careers (see previous post for the exact numbers).

I also wanted to check the percentage of successful steals were for some of the players who are noted stolen base marvels and/or great base runners. 

Jackie Robinson  197 SB, 86.8%

Rickey Henderson  1,406 SB, 80.8%

Lou Brock 938 SB, 75.3%

Maury Wills 556 SB, 72.8%

Omar Moreno 487 SB, 72.8%

Pete Rose 198 SB, 57.1%

baseball-reference.com  does not list Stolen Base Attempts for much, if no all of the careers of noted base stealers Ty Cobb (897 SB), Max Carey (738), and Honus Wagner (723), so an accurate success rate cannot be given for them.

Conclusions:

• Trout's success rate at stealing bases is incredibly high.  Better than all but Jackie Robinson in this admittedly small sample size.
• Aaron and Mantle were not being paid to steal bases.  They also played at a time when the stolen base was not a major weapon in the baseball arsenal.
• Jackie Robinson's reputation as one of the best use runners ever is pretty much deserved.
• Would you have bet that Omar Moreno had the same success rate as Maury Wills?
• I don't remember Barry Bonds stealing so much when he was with the Pirates.
• I chose to include Pete Rose because, whatever else is became and remains today, I remember him as a smart ball player and a good base runner.  I was shocked to see that his success rate at steals was so low.

FINAL CONCLUSION:  Mike Trout is a pretty damn good ball player, no matter how you look at him.

Mike and Mickey...and Hank and Barry and Willie

Spring Training opened yesterday, and rather than doing an extensive analysis of the Pirates, I thought that I would delay such ramblings and instead talk about a subject that has been niggling in the back of my mind for awhile.  It concerns Los Angeles Angels superstar Mike Trout, already a two time Most Valuable Player.

At some point during this off season, someone, probably on the MLB Network, probably after he was named the AL MVP  for the second time in his career, said that he is "this generation's Mickey Mantle." 

High praise for Mr. Trout, so I decided to do one of my famous spread sheets to compare the two of them at comparable stages in their careers, and this is what it looks like.

	Mike Trout	Mickey Mantle
Seasons	6	6
Games	811	808
BA	0.306	0.308
HR	168	173
HR/162 games	34	35
RBI	497	575
RBI/162 games	99	115
Hits	917	907
Hits/162 games	183	181
Runs	600	642
Runs/162 games	120	129

Through six seasons, Trout and Mantle are practically the same player.  The Mick outpaces Trout in both Runs Scored and Runs Batted In, which may be a function of the other players on their respective teams.  Otherwise, those "Trout Is Mantle" comparisons are not far off.

Then, I decided to throw in a couple of other players into the mix to see how Trout compares to them.  You might recognize them:

So, here is the expanded chart:

	Mike Trout	Hank Aaron	Barry Bonds	Mickey Mantle	Willie Mays
Seasons	6	6	6	6	6
Games	811	886	871	808	762
BA	0.306	0.323	0.269	0.308	0.311
HR	168	179	142	173	128
HR/162 games	34	33	26	35	27
RBI	497	617	563	575	509
RBI/162 games	99	113	84	115	108
Hits	917	1,137	837	907	903
Hits/162 games	183	209	156	181	192
Runs	600	612	563	642	531
Runs/162 games	120	112	105	129	113

I will only draw a couple of conclusions from these comparisons.

1. Trout certainly holds his own when compared to these four great players.  No doubt that in Trout, we are seeing a guy who can become one of the all time great players by the time his career is done.
2. Please don't bother pointing out that Bonds' numbers were rolled up in his Pre-Balco Era.  We all get it.
3. Perhaps the most striking aspect of this little chart are the stats of Hank Aaron.  When discussions of "who was the greatest ball player ever?" take place, I don't think that Aaron's name gets mentioned nearly often enough.

Okay, time to put the calculator away and start getting into Bucco Spring Training.  Time to worry about just which Ivan Nova shows up for the Pirates in 2017.