Ben Revere, 50 Steal Seasons, and Historic Efficiency

Since 1883, six Phillies combined to steal 50 or more bases 14 times. Some of the names are instantly recognizable by novice Phillies fans, like Juan Samuel and Ed Delahanty, some are great players seemingly lost to time, Sherry Magee and Billy Hamilton are examples of this type of player, and then there is the occasional head scratcher, a player that made the most out of his era like Ed Andrews.

With two steals yesterday, Ben Revere is just eight steals away from reaching the 50 steal mark. The last Phillie to reach 50 or more steals was Samuel in 1985, who did so while ranking fourth or higher among Major League second baseman in most statistical categories while simultaneously leading the National League in strikeouts. Revere is on pace for a similarly strange season in his own right: Revere trails the Pirates’ Josh Harrison by just two points headed into today’s game for the NL batting title and is the toughest player in the NL to strikeout but ranks just 40th out of 69 qualifying players in OBP and 52nd out of 69 qualifying players in OPS, one spot ahead of Ryan Howard.

Nevertheless, Revere could put himself in some elite company should he reach the 50 steals mark with the Phillies.

Here is a list of the top seasons in Phillies history in terms of number of steals.

Since caught stealing was recorded inconsistently prior to 1950, it is tough to tell how successful some of the turn-of-the-century players were. What we can tell, however, is that there were very few Phillies to accomplish this feat after the early part of the 20th century. In fact, the Phillies went 78 years between Magee stealing 50+ in 1906 to Samuel reaching 50+ in 1984.

Revere’s potential 50 steal season, however, is shaping up to be something special on a different level. Among Phillies players with 40 or more steals since 1984, the end of a 73 year drought of 40+ steal seasons, Revere trails only Jimmy Rollins in steal success percentage:

When narrowed down to 50+ steal seasons, Revere is on pace to be the most successful 50 SB campaign in Phillies’ history:

And this season, Revere is among the best in quality and quantity, ranking fourth in steals in baseball with the second-best success rate among players with 25 steals or more:

In fact, Revere’s quantity/quality ratio is among the best in history. Revere currently ranks 17th in stolen base success percentage among players with 42 or more steals in a season:

While Revere may be putting together one of the emptiest lines for any potential batting champion ever, he is also teetering around the 90% stolen base success mark while forging toward 50 steals. Among players with 50 steals or more, Jacoby Ellsbury leads the pack with a 92.86% in 56 attempts just last season. While Revere likely won’t be able to reach the heights Ellsbury did last season, he could tie the second best percentage of all time should he be able to steal ten more consecutive bases without getting caught:

And that accomplishment would put Revere into some pretty cool base-stealing company.