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.

James Outman has a 1.235 OPS in his first 16 career games-where does that rank?

I used Stahead's Span Finder to find all the guys since 1901 with at least a 1.200 OPS in their first 16 career games with 50+ PAs. I had to do it over several time periods or else there was an error message. Here are the ones that did it:

Player	Span Started	Span Ended	OPS	PA
Aledmys Díaz	4/5/2016	4/24/2016	1.369	53
Aristides Aquino	8/19/2018	8/16/2019	1.335	56
Jeff Francoeur	7/7/2005	8/1/2005	1.318	50
J.D. Drew	9/8/1998	4/7/1999	1.273	50
Willie McCovey	7/30/1959	8/17/1959	1.272	65
Yasiel Puig	6/3/2013	6/20/2013	1.267	65
Ryan McGuire	6/5/1997	6/24/1997	1.252	52
Matt Kemp	5/28/2006	6/15/2006	1.252	55
Mark Reynolds	5/16/2007	6/1/2007	1.246	67
James Outman	7/31/2022	4/11/2023	1.235	59
Dino Restelli	6/14/1949	7/1/1949	1.225	71
Taylor Teagarden	7/18/2008	9/27/2008	1.205	53

 

I did some overlapping time periods because if I stopped at, say, 1946 in one search and then the next one started with 1947, it might miss a guy who did well at the end of 1946 and the beginning of 1947.

Gold Glovers who led their league in Power-Speed#

Kyle Tucker did it last year and I thought it might be a pretty rate achievement. It actually does not seem that rare but he is in pretty good company. Looks like 6 Hall of Famers and 3 other guys who were MVPs. If I left anyone out or if anyone below is a mistake, let me know. I used Baseball Reference.

NL
Goldschmidt-2017
Carlos Gomez-2013
Kemp-2011
Abreu-2005
Derrek Lee-2003
Bonds-1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998
Larry Waker-1997
Eric Davis-1987
Sandberg-1985
Dale Murphy-1983
Dawson-1981, 1982
Morgan-1976, 1977
Cedeno-1974
Bonds-1971, 1973
Mays-1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1964

AL
Tucker-2022
Machado-2015
Ellsbury-2011
Crawford-2010
Sizemore-2008
Erstad-2000
Griffey-1999
Dwayne Murphy-1982
Otis-1971
Blair-1969
Agee-1966
Versalles-1965
Landis-1961