Tag Archives: stolen base record

23 Aug

an ode to speed

The stolen base ain’t what it used to be, usurped by the home run at most levels of the game. Small ball generally has given way to the quest for power and the big inning. But speed can still be a valuable tool. And Mississippi has a long history of producing players who have it. From Cool Papa Bell — the Negro Leagues legend from Starkville who is credited with 285 official stolen bases — to Billy Hamilton — the Taylorsville product who has 321 career bags in MLB and once got a record 155 in a single season in the minors. Eight Mississippi natives, none currently active, have 150 or more steals in the majors, nine if you include Bell. Silento Sayles set a national high school record with 103 bags in 2013 at Port Gibson. Gulfport’s Marcus Lawton stole 111 bases in the minors in 1985, one of just a few to reach that milestone. Major league scouts still hunt speed, and it no doubt was a key factor in Philadelphia’s decision to draft South Panola High’s Emaarion Boyd in the 11th round of the 2022 draft. Boyd swiped two bases in a Florida Complex League game on Monday, giving him six in eight pro games. He is batting .333. Tishomingo County’s Spence Coffman, drafted in the 19th round by San Diego, also was rated as a plus-runner. He stole 17 bags as a prep senior but is 0-for-1 in four rookie-ball games. The current steals leader among Mississippians in the minors is James Beard, former Loyd Star standout, who has 25 bags at the Low-Class A level in the Chicago White Sox’s system. Beard was considered the fastest high school player available in the 2019 draft, and he went in the fourth round. Alas, he is hitting just .163 this year (.185 career), clouding his prospects for advancement. Jake Mangum, the ex-Mississippi State and Jackson prep star, was one of the fastest college players in the 2019 draft, and he went in the fourth round to the New York Mets, eight picks after Beard despite being a much more accomplished hitter. Mangum swiped 17 bases in 53 games in his pro debut and has 39 career bags. A .280 career hitter, he has reached Triple-A, knocking on the door to the big leagues. Speed is good, but without the hit tool, a player’s chances of advancement aren’t so good. To wit: Sayles, drafted by Cleveland, stole 36 bases in 200 minor league games but retired in A-ball with a .222 career average in 2017. Lawton, for all his speed, made it to the big leagues for just a cup of coffee (10 games in 1989) and finished with one career steal, 164 fewer than his brother Matt, not as fast but a better hitter. Wiggins native D.J. Davis, a first-round pick by Toronto in 2012, got 134 bags over seven seasons but never got past A-ball. Pontotoc’s Delvin Zinn stole 42 bases in A-ball last year but has seen his career stall in Double-A, currently batting .113 (with seven steals) at Tennessee in the Chicago Cubs’ system. Hattiesburg’s Joe Gray Jr., a second-rounder in 2018, has 17 steals in 110 games at the High-A level for Milwaukee but also has a .192 average. Pascagoula’s Willie Joe Garry stole 24 bases last year and has 12 this season in A-ball but is floundering around the .200 mark. Maybe someday, considering the radical changes MLB is making in the grand old game, there will be a designated runner, whose only job is to pinch run, ala Herb Washington, the Belzoni native who played such a role with the 1974-75 Oakland A’s. He stole 31 bases and never batted or played the field before being unceremoniously released.

05 Feb

by invitation

Former Southern Miss standout Nick Sandlin, whose rapid rise in Cleveland’s system was stalled by injury in 2019, has received an invitation to big league spring training as a non-roster player. Mississippi State product Gavin Collins, a catcher who played in high Class A in 2019, also got an invite to the Indians’ camp in Goodyear, Ariz. Teams are beginning to announce their non-roster invitees as it appears spring training will begin as scheduled in a couple of weeks. Sandlin, a sidearm-style right-hander, was a second-round pick in 2018 and reached Triple-A early in 2019 before a stress fracture in his arm ended his season. Sandlin got work in the Indians’ alternate camp during the 2020 season. He has a 2.68 ERA and seven saves in 49 pro games. Collins, a 13th-round pick in 2016, is a .257 hitter with 24 homers in 295 minor league games. P.S. As part of a series on minor league record-holders, milb.com featured Esix Snead as the modern day leader in career stolen bases with 507. Second on the list, somewhat surprisingly, is Trenidad (Trent) Hubbard, who was the second baseman on the first Jackson Generals team in 1991. Hubbard swiped 488 bags in a career that spanned 20 seasons (1986-2005) and included some big league time. (Note: Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton, who set a minor league single-season record with 155 steals in 2012, has 396 minor league bags in 505 games.)

24 Mar

honor among thieves

The major league single-season stolen base record has stood at 130 since 1982. No one has gotten within 20 bags of that mark in the 35 years since. Billy Hamilton, the ex-Taylorsville High star, could get there. Who says? No less an authority than the player who holds the record: Rickey Henderson. In a recent interview with csnbayarea.com, the Hall of Famer had a lot of good things to say about Hamilton and his base-stealing philosophy, which Henderson said reminded him of his own: “I’m gonna run until you throw me out. And if you throw me out, I’m gonna get back up and run again.” Over his 25 years, Henderson’s steal success rate was 81 percent. Over his three-plus years, Hamilton is at 82 percent. They are master thieves. Of course, the big thing for Hamilton, as Henderson acknowledged, is getting on base enough to make it all work. Henderson had an on-base percentage of .398 in 1982, when he got his 130. Hamilton stole 58 bags for Cincinnati last season in just 119 games. His OBP was a rather pedestrian .321, his batting average, even after a strong second half, a lackluster .260. There are some who think Hamilton just isn’t going to hit enough to remain a regular, his defensive skill as a center fielder notwithstanding. After an injury-curtailed 2016 season, Hamilton hasn’t had an inspiring spring. He returned to the Reds’ lineup Thursday from several days off (sore Achilles’) and took an 0-for-3 as the DH. He is batting .211 (.268 OBP, 12 strikeouts in 38 at-bats) in 14 games. When the games start to count, he’ll need to step it up. Yes, a lot. While it’s true that the stolen base has been marginalized by a variety of factors in recent years, Hamilton — who swiped 155 bags in the minors in 2012 — has shown that it can still be a weapon. When he’s on base, you’re compelled to watch. Imagine what a thrill it would be to watch him make a run at Henderson’s record.

15 Jun

that was quick

Billy Hamilton, on base three times for Cincinnati on Sunday, stole a career-high five bases and reached 100 career steals in just his 219th big league game. “He’s an extremely unique talent when it comes to speed,” Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon told mlb.com. Taylorsville native Hamilton leads MLB with 31 steals. He swiped 56 last year, trailing only Dee Gordon’s 64. It’s worth noting that the record for career steals by a Mississippi native is 223, by Gulfport’s Gerald “Gee” Walker, who played in the 1930s and ’40s. Vicksburg’s Ellis Burks is second on the list with 181, followed by Greenville’s Frank White (178), Gulfport’s Matt Lawton (165) and Ellisville’s Buddy Myer (156). The active leader is McComb native Jarrod Dyson, who has 126 bags, six this year for Kansas City. Hamilton, who plays more regularly than Dyson, will catch him soon enough. P.S. The New York Yankees sent Mississippi State product Jacob Lindgren to the minors. The rookie left-hander had a 5.14 ERA in seven innings, allowing three home runs and four walks with eight strikeouts. The 2014 second-round pick had not allowed a homer in 46 2/3 minor league innings while fanning 77 and walking 23.

28 Jul

stealing the show

Silento Sayles is starting to get on base with more regularity. That’s bad news for catchers in the Arizona League. The former Port Gibson High star, who set a national high school stolen base record in 2013, swiped seven bags in seven tries in a recent four-game stretch for the AZL Indians, Cleveland’s rookie club. The 5-foot-9, 185-pound Sayles is batting .295 (.413 on-base percentage) with 11 stolen bases in 12 attempts and 16 runs through 17 games. Though he still has a long way to go, the 19-year-old Sayles is certainly an intriguing prospect. He has shown improvement in his second pro season; he batted just .186 in 31 games in the AZL last season and was 5-for-8 in steals. Cleveland picked Sayles, an outfielder, in the 14th round in 2013 after his amazing senior year at Port Gibson. He batted .541 and stole 103 bases, including a hard-to-imagine 12 in one game. Even Billy Hamilton didn’t do that.