Winning Strategy?

July 7, 2025

 

 

We were perusing the team statistics for this season (thru Saturday, July 5th) and our eye focused on stolen bases.

 

Thru Saturday, the success rate of stolen bases was 87.1 %……which is pretty darn close to last year’s success rate of 87.7 %.

 

Which got us wondering……….is stolen base success percentage tied to a team’s overall winning percentage?

 

So that you don’t have to pull out your old high school math notes to determine the formula for correlation……..we did that for you.

 

So……….what is your guess?   To what degree is a team’s ability to successfully steal a base correlated to their overall winning percentage?

 

And the answer………….(insert drumroll here)…….

 

..............

 

None.

 

In fact, there is a very slight negative correlation (about -9.5 %).

 

Then we wondered……..regardless of success rate, is there a tie-in between the sheer number of stolen base attempts and team winning percentage?

 

And the answer………..

 

Very little.

 

There is a a 21.3 % positive correlation between teams that attempt to run more with their overall winning percentage……a very weak positive correlation.

 

Were you a tad surprised?

 

See ya at the ballyard!