Interesting Stats : Most All-Time steals by position

[Rad_Hazard]

Originally Posted by carlsonjok

There is a difference between stolen bases by a player who was primarily a DH and stolen bases by a player while playing as a DH. Based on his career splits, Baylor played the most games as a DH, but most of his stolen bases were when he was playing left field.

Attachment 562549

Ah ok!

But in that case, wouldn't McRae still be incorrect? According to Baseball Reference, McRae would only have 74 SB as a DH.

The true career leader in that position would be Paul Molitor with 169 SB as a DH.

If this is correct, that makes the MLB article even lazier than I expected.

[D. Bergin]

Molitor would likely be the correct answer, but because he played less then half of his games as a DH, he's not clumped into the statistical data. Same as Baylor.

Most of these lists are using the model, that the player counts as that being his regular position only if he played a certain % of his games at that position.

That's what I thought was flawed about the list to begin with, not that it's a post-1920 list, which was declared to be the case right at the outset.

I'd guess the lists are compiled this way because baseball reference doesn't spit out a neat compilation list in this category, and you have to go to each individual players "Career Split" page.....and that could end up being pretty time consuming.

[Rad_Hazard]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Molitor would likely be the correct answer, but because he played less then half of his games as a DH, he's not clumped into the statistical data. Same as Baylor.

Most of these lists are using the model, that the player counts as that being his regular position only if he played a certain % of his games at that position.

That's what I thought was flawed about the list to begin with, not that it's a post-1920 list, which was declared to be the case right at the outset.

I'd guess the lists are compiled this way because baseball reference doesn't spit out a neat compilation list in this category, and you have to go to each individual players "Career Split" page.....and that could end up being pretty time consuming.

That makes sense, and I completely agree with that last statement 100%.

I missed Molitor on my initial assessment since my criteria was at least 50% playing time at the position.

This is good stuff though, I always like diving into stats I previously had no idea about.

What I learned is that Molitor is the DH SB king, and Don Baylor had some serious wheels in his younger days and two of the coolest nicknames in baseball.

[D. Bergin]

What's really interesting, is that Paul Molitor should hold both the DH and the 3B record.

If you just count games they played at that position, Molitor beats Howard Johnson 185 to 154.

Unless of course there's somebody else out there who is being left out of the statistical data we haven't thought of yet.

[Rad_Hazard]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

What's really interesting, is that Paul Molitor should hold both the DH and the 3B record.

If you just count games they played at that position, Molitor beats Howard Johnson 185 to 154.

Unless of course there's somebody else out there who is being left out of the statistical data we haven't thought of yet.

I think you are right!

At a glance the post-1920 leader at both 3B and DH is Molitor. Enos Cabel comes in 2nd at 3B with 183.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Rad_Hazard

I think you are right!

At a glance the post-1920 leader at both 3B and DH is Molitor. Enos Cabel comes in 2nd at 3B with 183.

Wow, that's close. Cabell wouldn't have crossed my mind in a million years to even be in the running.

Molitor got caught a lot less though.

[Rad_Hazard]

Ok, we are wrong again!

There is a split finder tool on Stathead.

For 3B it's actually Carney Lansford!

Also, Bob Gibson at P with 13 is correct, Molitor is by far #1 at DH with 169 (Baylor 2nd with 80, and McRae 3rd with 74), and Kendall at Catcher with 169 is also correct.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Rad_Hazard

Ok, we are wrong again!

There is a split finder tool on Stathead.

For 3B it's actually Carney Lansford!

Also, Bob Gibson at P with 13 is correct, Molitor is by far #1 at DH with 169 (Baylor 2nd with 80, and McRae 3rd with 74), and Kendall at Catcher with 169 is also correct.

Damn, Carney Lansford! It's hard to look at that card and say to yourself "That's the same guy who stole 37 bases, 3 years after that picture was taken".