The second and third greatest base stealers of all time?

[Balticfox]

Ricky Henderson is easily the top base stealer of all time. But who should get the Silver and Bronze in this key category? Lou Brock, Vince Coleman, Ty Cobb, Maury Wills, Tim Raines, or...? Why?

[bk400]

I'm going to limit my response to players that I've actually seen play. I'm partial to Vince Coleman and Tim Raines for the Silver and Bronze, respectively. I recall watching Vince Coleman, who was sort of a one-dimensional player. Everyone in the stadium knew he was going to try to steal, but still stole a lot of bases in a relatively short career (752 in 13 years, versus 808 in 23 years for Tim Raines).

Honorable mention for me goes to Ozzie Smith. He ranks 22nd all-time in stolen bases and 5th among modern Hall of Famers (behind only Rickey Henderson, Lou Brock, Tim Raines and Joe Morgan), while accumulating the highest defensive WAR in history and winning 13 consecutive Gold Gloves.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

I have to go Raines. Insane percentage for the any amount of steals let alone for the guy in 5th on the all-time list. Almost 85% success rate.

I Like Coleman, but sticking with the success rate theme I'm going to go Willie Wilson for 3rd at over 83%.

Honorable mention to Davey Lopes who had an 83% success rate in an era that was unheard of, plus he is credited with teaching Rickey a lot about reading pitchers and getting a jump. Rickey became a much higher percentage guy after being mentored by Lopes.

Incidentally the list of highest success percentage for steals for guys who had over 500 attempts goes

Raines
Wilson
Lopes
Rollins
Carl Crawford
Ichiro
Joe Morgan
Coleman
Henderson
Roberto Alomar
Jose Reyes

Those are the only guys over 80%. I was curious after writing the above, didn't know that going in, I just knew the guys I picked were very successful.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

I have to go Raines. Insane percentage for the any amount of steals let alone for the guy in 5th on the all-time list. Almost 85% success rate.

I Like Coleman, but sticking with the success rate theme I'm going to go Willie Wilson for 3rd at over 83%.

Honorable mention to Davey Lopes who had an 83% success rate in an era that was unheard of, plus he is credited with teaching Rickey a lot about reading pitchers and getting a jump. Rickey became a much higher percentage guy after being mentored by Lopes.

Incidentally the list of highest success percentage for steals for guys who had over 500 attempts goes

Raines
Wilson
Lopes
Rollins
Carl Crawford
Ichiro
Joe Morgan
Coleman
Henderson
Roberto Alomar
Jose Reyes

Those are the only guys over 80%. I was curious after writing the above, didn't know that going in, I just knew the guys I picked were very successful.

Lopes was first base coach for the Phillies from 2007 to 2010, and I think the Phillies led the league (or were close to it) in stolen base percentage when he was there. I remember many of the players credited him with helping them greatly improve their running game as a team.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by jayshum

Lopes was first base coach for the Phillies from 2007 to 2010, and I think the Phillies led the league (or were close to it) in stolen base percentage when he was there. I remember many of the players credited him with helping them greatly improve their running game as a team.

Well Rollins is on the list of over 500 attempts guys over 80% and if I remember correctly Utley and Victorino were high percentage guys albeit with less attempts.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

Well Rollins is on the list of over 500 attempts guys over 80% and if I remember correctly Utley and Victorino were high percentage guys albeit with less attempts.

Utley had a career success rate of 87.5% but with only 176 total attempts. In 2009 he had 23 steals without being caught.

Victorino was at 83.3% with 277 total attempts.

As a team in 2006, Phillies were at 78.6%. 2007 (Lopes first year as tgeir coach) was 87.9%. 2008 was 84.5%. 2009 was 81.0%. 2010 was 83.7%. Definitely a good run (pun intended) when he was there.

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

I have to go Raines. Insane percentage for the any amount of steals let alone for the guy in 5th on the all-time list. Almost 85% success rate.

I Like Coleman, but sticking with the success rate theme I'm going to go Willie Wilson for 3rd at over 83%.

Honorable mention to Davey Lopes who had an 83% success rate in an era that was unheard of, plus he is credited with teaching Rickey a lot about reading pitchers and getting a jump. Rickey became a much higher percentage guy after being mentored by Lopes.

Incidentally the list of highest success percentage for steals for guys who had over 500 attempts goes

Raines
Wilson
Lopes
Rollins
Carl Crawford
Ichiro
Joe Morgan
Coleman
Henderson
Roberto Alomar
Jose Reyes

Those are the only guys over 80%.

Willie Wilson deserves far more accolades in this thread! Though completely overshadowed by Ricky Henderson in his prime, Wilson led MLB with 83 steals in 1979 and had 79 in 1980. He's twelfth on the all-time list with 668.

But Wilson also hit 147 triples which was a total exceeded in the post WWII era by only Stan Musial and Roberto Clemente!

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Balticfox

Willie Wilson deserves far more accolades in this thread! Though completely overshadowed by Ricky Henderson in his prime, Wilson led MLB with 83 steals in 1979 and had 79 in 1980. He's twelfth on the all-time list with 668.

But Wilson also hit 147 triples which was a total exceeded in the post WWII era by only Stan Musial and Roberto Clemente!

Willie was a master of using that KC artificial turf to his advantage, though his Home/Away splits are not as lopsided as you may think they are (they are still much better in KC), so he was able to adjust if he needed to.

If Willie ever figured out how to take a walk, he might be in the HOF right now.

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by bk400

I'm partial to Vince Coleman and Tim Raines for the Silver and Bronze, respectively. I recall watching Vince Coleman, who was sort of a one-dimensional player. Everyone in the stadium knew he was going to try to steal, but still stole a lot of bases in a relatively short career (752 in 13 years, versus 808 in 23 years for Tim Raines).

I really like this insouciant street punk shot of Vince Coleman from the 1977 Topps set:

(Not mine.)

He should never have grown the moustache!