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Miguel Dilone – Part 2 (1978)

Posted by Raphy on February 24, 2009

On Sunday, Steve presented a record held by Miguel Dilone.  This led me to take a closer look  Dilone's numbers and, believe it or not, he actually holds another record and its not even close.

Here are the players who have been caught stealing at least 20 times in one season sorted by the number of times that they reached base.

  Cnt Player            **TOB** CS Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+-------+--+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Miguel Dilone        83   23 1978  23 OAK AL 135 292 258  34  59  8  0  1  14  23   0  30   1  10   0   2  50  .229  .294  .271  .565 798/5
    2 Mike Edwards        131   21 1978  25 OAK AL 142 446 414  48 113 16  2  1  23  16   0  32   2  14   0   7  27  .273  .303  .329  .632 *4/6
    3 Jimmy Walsh         140   21 1914  28 TOT AL 111 439 352  48  77 12  9  4  47  59   0  48   4  24   0   0  12  .219  .337  .338  .675 *78/9
    4 Cliff Heathcote     150   24 1924  26 CHC NL 113 433 392  66 121 19  7  0  30  28   0  28   1  12   0   0  26  .309  .356  .393  .749 *98/7
    5 Jimmy Austin        152   23 1914  34 SLB AL 130 523 466  55 111 16  4  0  30  40   0  59   1  16   0   0  20  .238  .300  .290  .590 *5
    6 Buck Weaver         158   20 1914  23 CHW AL 136 576 541  64 133 20  9  2  28  20   0  40   5  10   0   0  14  .246  .279  .327  .606 *6
    7 Hal Janvrin         158   20 1914  21 BOS AL 145 553 492  65 117 18  6  1  51  38   0  50   3  20   0   0  29  .238  .296  .305  .601 436/5
    8 Claudell Washingt   159   20 1976  21 OAK AL 134 530 490  65 126 20  6  5  53  30   1  90   3   3   4  13  37  .257  .302  .353  .655 *98/D
    9 Cecil Espy          162   20 1989  26 TEX AL 142 527 475  65 122 12  7  3  31  38   2  99   2  10   2   2  45  .257  .313  .331  .644 *8/D79
   10 Clyde Milan         163   21 1914  27 WSH AL 115 481 437  63 129 19 11  1  39  32   0  26   2  10   0   0  38  .295  .346  .396  .742 *8/7

In 1978 Miguel Dilone reached base 83 times an was caught stealing 23. No one else has ever  been caught stealing 20 or more times and reached base less than 131 times.  And while Dilone did do some pinch running , even if you add his 47 pinch runs to his times on base, he is still one less than Mike Edwards ('78),  the #2 man on the list.

On the flip side, during that season Dilone also stole 50 bases,  making him the player with the fewest times on base and 50 or more SB. Here however,  we can not ignore the pinch runs. Otis Nixon (1990), the number 2 man on this list, who reached base only 3 times more than Dilone, pinch ran 21 times less.

3 Responses to “Miguel Dilone – Part 2 (1978)”

  1. gerry Says:

    So half of the top (or should I say, bottom) ten made the list in 1914? That suggests that a lot more ballplayers racked up the CS back then, and it also suggests that our only data from that era is from that one season (maybe even that one league in that one season) - is that right? If so, it further suggests that if we had data for all those missing years, we might find a challenger for Dilone. Dilone would then not be unique, he would just be a throwback to an earlier age.

  2. JohnnyTwisto Says:

    Caught Stealing was counted in the AL 1914-1916, and 1920 to present. In the NL 1915-1916, 1920-1925, 1951-present. It does look bizarre that so many of those top numbers would all be from 1914. Of course, there was more base stealing at that time, and I think a lot of hit-and-running as well (check the Bill James book on managers on that). The 1370 caught stealings in 1914 AL (more than one per game) are far and away the most in any season they've been counted.

  3. fabio Says:

    I believe Dilone is still the only player with 50 steals and 0 triples in a season. He only had 8 doubles. OK, he only played about half a season. So his steal total is incredible! But still, talk about having NO power!