CHASE UTLEY IS MLB’s MOST SUCCESSFUL BASE STEALER
Take all the current base stealers in the majors, who have stolen at least 150 bases of which there are 34, and at the top of the success list is Chase Utley, the 38-year old part-time second baseman for the Dodgers. Utley stole his fifth base in six attempts Sunday night to up his career total to 150 steals in 171 attempts, a rate of 87.719%.
And his steals still mean something.
The Dodgers were trailing by a run in the 9th to the Giants Sunday night when Utley reached on an infield single to start the inning. Utley then stole second and he came around to tie the game on Yasiel Puig’s line-drive RBI single which tied the game. The Dodgers won it in the 11th on Kyle Farmer’s walk-off, pinch-two-run double in his MLB debut.
A slight transgression
While it didn’t have the drama of Farmer’s walkoff hit, on September 9 1939, facing the New York Giants, Brooklyn rookie Chris Hartje in his first MLB AB pinch hit a two-run double in their seven run 8th inning to help Brooklyn win 8-3
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TOP TEN MOST EFFECTIVE ACTIVE BASE STEALERS
| Rk | Player | SB% | SB | From | To | Age | G | CS | Tm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chase Utley | 87.719% | 150 | 2003 | 2017 | 24-38 | 1807 | 21 | PHI-LAD |
| 2 | Carlos Beltran | 86.427% | 312 | 1998 | 2017 | 21-40 | 2543 | 49 | KCR-NYM-SFG-STL-TEX-NYY-HOU |
| 3 | Jarrod Dyson | 85.043% | 199 | 2010 | 2017 | 25-32 | 644 | 35 | KCR-SEA |
| 4 | Mike Trout | 84.239% | 155 | 2011 | 2017 | 19-25 | 872 | 29 | LAA |
| 5 | Billy Hamilton | 82.909% | 228 | 2013 | 2017 | 22-26 | 495 | 47 | CIN |
| 6 | Jacoby Ellsbury | 82.673% | 334 | 2007 | 2017 | 23-33 | 1184 | 70 | BOS-NYY |
| 7 | Drew Stubbs | 82.564% | 161 | 2009 | 2017 | 24-32 | 911 | 34 | CIN-CLE-COL-ATL-BAL-TEX-SFG |
| 8 | Willy Taveras | 81.590% | 195 | 2004 | 2010 | 22-28 | 670 | 44 | HOU-COL-CIN-WSN |
| 9 | Alcides Escobar | 81.281% | 165 | 2008 | 2017 | 21-30 | 1238 | 38 | MIL-KCR |
| 10 | Ichiro Suzuki | 81.280% | 508 | 2001 | 2017 | 27-43 | 2587 | 117 | SEA-NYY-MIA |
