Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Players who led their league in Power-Speed# and SB% in the same season

Here is the definition Power-Speed# from Baseball Reference:

"2 x (Home Runs x Stolen Bases)/(Stolen Bases + Home Runs). The harmonic mean of HR and SB. To do well you need a lot of both. Developed by Bill James."

A guy can steal alot of bases but still get caught alot, too. So it is extra impressive to lead in both PS# and SB% in the same year.

I used the annual league leader lists from Baseball Reference to try to find these guys. If I missed someone, please let me know.

Player

Year

HR

SB

PS#

SB%

Jethroe

1951

18

35

23.8

87.5

Mays

1955

51

24

32.6

85.71

Mays

1956

36

40

37.9

80

Mantle

1959

31

21

25

87.5

Mays

1959

34

27

30.1

87.1

F. Robinson

1961

37

22

27.6

88

Mays

1962

49

18

26.3

90

L. Wagner

1964

31

14

19.3

87.5

Wynn

1965

22

43

29.1

91.49

Aaron

1966

44

21

28.4

87.5

Aaron

1968

29

28

28.5

84.85

R. Jackson

1974

29

25

26.9

83.33

Lopes

1979

28

44

34.2

91.67

  

I had a post recently with all the guys who led their league in Power-Speed# and won a Gold Glove in the same season. The only guy on that list who is also the list for this post is Willie Mays. Mays had two seasons when he won a Gold Glove and appeared on the list here, 1959 & 1962.

Lopes has the 2nd highest PS# among the players listed here and the highest SB%. He was 34 years old in 1979. Jethroe was 34 in 1951 as was Aaron in 1968.

Baseball Reference has a minimum number of SB attempts of .1 per team game to qualify for the league lead in SB%. So if a player has 16 attempts, he qualifies.

In 1976, Willie Davis is listed as the NL leader with 87.5% (14-2). 

But The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition by Gary Gillette and Pete Palmer has 20 SBs as the minimum. If we go with that, then Joe Morgan leads in SB% (and he led in PS#, 37.2 with 27 HRs & 60 SBs).

In 1976, Joe Morgan had the highest SB% in the NL of anyone with 20+ SBs, 86.96% (60-9).  He led the league in SLG with .576 and OBP with .444. He also won a Gold Glove in 1976. So if we go with 20+ SBs as the qualifier for SB%, then Morgan joins Mays as the only players to win a Gold Glove in the same season they led their league in both PS# and SB%. A very impressive year.

The following players led their league at least once in PS# while also leading at least once in SB% but never both in the same year. There could be others but these are all the guys I found. If you think I missed someone, let me know.

Amos Otis
Tommy Harper
Chuck HInton
Minnie Minoso
Jackie Jensen
Brady Anderson
Cesar Cedeno
Ken Griffey, Jr.
Ryne Sandberg
Eric Davis
Joe Morgan
Jackie Robinson

Harper was 1st in PS# in 1970 then 1st in SB% in 1971. Otis was 1st in SB% in 1970 then 1st in PS# in 1971.

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