Daily Notes, With Various Stolen-Base Leaderboards

Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of Daily Notes.

1. Various Stolen-Base Leaderboards
2. Today’s Notable Games (Including MLB.TV Free Game)
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Various Stolen-Base Leaderboards
A Thing That’s Possible
It’s entirely within the realm of the possible that one — a curious reader, for example — that such a one might ask himself, “Who’s the best base-stealer in the majors?”

A Thing That’s a Fact
It’s entirely a fact that there are at least three criteria by which one might determine the league’s best base-stealer — specifically, by identifying either (a) the league’s leader by stolen-base runs or (b) the league’s leader by stolen-base frequency (i.e. attempts per opportunity) or (c) the league’s leader as measured by stolen-base runs per opportunity (or X number of opportunities, as the case may be).

Another Thing That’s a Fact
Another thing that’s a fact is how the author has compiled three leaderboards (below) corresponding to the three criteria mentioned above. To say that he (i.e. the author) found data from Baseball Reference helpful in so doing would be the very picture of accuracy. To say that all numbers are current through Saturday would be equally precise.

Leaderboard: Stolen-Base Runs
Here are the top-10 players this season by stolen-base runs, in which .2 runs are assigned for every successful stolen base and -.4 runs for every caught stealing (per the current linear-weight values for 2012, which themselves are derived by dividing the wOBA stolen-base and caught-stealing constants by this year’s wOBA Scale figure):

Rank	Player	Tm	SB	CS	SBR
1	Mike Trout	LAA	46	4	7.6
2	Everth Cabrera	SDP	34	2	6.0
3	Coco Crisp	OAK	35	4	5.4
4	Shane Victorino	TOT	37	6	5.0
5	Desmond Jennings	TBR	28	2	4.8
6	Emilio Bonifacio	MIA	30	3	4.8
7	Tony Campana	CHC	29	3	4.6
8	Carlos Gomez	MIL	35	6	4.6
9	Ben Revere	MIN	37	7	4.6
10	Alcides Escobar	KCR	31	5	4.2

Leaderboard: Stolen-Base Attempts per Opportunity
Here are the top-10 players this season by stolen-base attempts per opportunity — which is to say, the players who attempt stolen bases most often (minimum 25 stolen-base opportunities):

Rank	Player	Tm	SB	CS	SBR	SBO	SBA%
1	Rajai Davis	TOR	45	12	4.2	103	55.3%
2	Anthony Gose	TOR	15	3	1.8	37	48.6%
3	Tony Campana	CHC	29	3	4.6	78	41.0%
4	Dee Gordon	LAD	31	10	2.2	105	39.0%
5	Eduardo Nunez	NYY	11	2	1.4	35	37.1%
6	Darin Mastroianni	MIN	21	3	3.0	70	34.3%
7	Emilio Bonifacio	MIA	30	3	4.8	101	32.7%
8	Carlos Gomez	MIL	35	6	4.6	126	32.5%
9	Starling Marte	PIT	9	4	0.2	40	32.5%
10	Jordan Schafer	HOU	27	9	1.8	119	30.3%

Leaderboard: Stolen-Base Runs per Hundred Opportunities
Here are the top-10 players this season by stolen-base runs per every 100 opportunies — or, in effect, the most efficient base-stealers this year (minimum 25 stolen-base opportunities):

Rank	Player	Tm	SB	CS	SBR	SBO	SBA%	SBR/100
1	Tony Campana	CHC	29	3	4.6	78	41.0%	5.9
2	Anthony Gose	TOR	15	3	1.8	37	48.6%	4.9
3	Emilio Bonifacio	MIA	30	3	4.8	101	32.7%	4.8
4	Darin Mastroianni	MIN	21	3	3.0	70	34.3%	4.3
5	Everth Cabrera	SDP	34	2	6.0	145	24.8%	4.1
6	Rajai Davis	TOR	45	12	4.2	103	55.3%	4.1
7	Eduardo Nunez	NYY	11	2	1.4	35	37.1%	4.0
8	Carlos Gomez	MIL	35	6	4.6	126	32.5%	3.7
9	Mike Trout	LAA	46	4	7.6	233	21.5%	3.3
10	Alexi Casilla	MIN	18	1	3.2	103	18.4%	3.1

Today’s Notable Games
Milwaukee at Washington | 13:05 ET
In addition to offering another chapter in Milwaukee’s unlikely pursuit of the NL’s second wild-card spot, this game also features probably the best pitching matchup of Monday: Marco Estrada (126.1 IP, 89 xFIP-, 2.3 WAR) versus Jordan Zimmermann (182.2 IP, 97 xFIP-, 3.3 WAR)

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Milwaukee Radio.

Kansas City at Detroit | 19:05 ET
Despite losing both ends of Sunday’s doubleheader against Minnesota, Detroit remains just a single game behind the Chicago White Sox in the AL Central. With their 31.7% chance of making the postseason (per Cool Standings), the Tigers’ playoff odds remain are almost identical to where they were on opening day. The very talented Justin Verlander (223.1 IP, 81 xFIP-, 6.2 WAR) starts for Detroit.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Detroit Radio.

Toronto at Baltimore | TBD ***MLB.TV Free Game***
This is the second game of Toronto and Baltimore’s Monday doubleheader. What the author would prefer to discuss, however, is the first game of said doubleheader. Starting that game for Baltimore is Steve Johnson (28.1 IP, 81 xFIP-, 0.5 WAR), who’s pitched quite well both in relief and also in a pair of starts. Starting that game for Toronto is Henderson Alvarez (175.2 IP, 109 xFIP-, 0.4 WAR), who appeared to throw his changeup both differently and more effectively in his most recent start.

Readers’ Preferred Broadcast: Toronto Radio.

Today’s Complete Schedule
Here’s the complete schedule for all of today’s games, with our very proprietary watchability (NERD) scores for each one. Pitching probables and game times aggregated from MLB.com and RotoWire. The average NERD Game Score for today is 4.6.

Note: the following Game Scores include the poorly conceived playoff-odds adjustment discussed in a recent edition of Daily Notes. Also note: the following table is entirely sortable.

Away		SP	Tm.	Gm.	Tm.	SP		Home	Time
Marco Estrada	MIL	8	9	7	7	8	WAS	Jord. Zimmermann	13:05
Henderson Alvarez	TOR	5	4	4	2	9	BAL	Steve Johnson*	16:05
Ricky Romero	TOR	2	4	2	2	5	BAL	Wei-Yin Chen	TBD
Luke Hochevar	KC	5	7	7	5	10	DET	Justin Verlander	19:05
Kyle McPherson*	PIT	7	4	4	2	6	NYN	Jenrry Mejia*	19:10
Dan Straily	OAK	2	6	3	7	6	TEX	Derek Holland	20:05
Lance Lynn	STL	8	8	5	4	4	HOU	Fernando Abad	20:05
Zach McAllister	CLE	6	2	6	4	10	CHA	Chris Sale	20:10
Andy Pettitte	NYA	9	7	4	4	2	MIN	Liam Hendriks	20:10
Trevor Cahill	AZ	6	7	4	7	4	COL	Tyler Chatwood	20:40

To learn more about Pitcher and Team NERD scores click here.
To learn how Game NERD Scores are calculated, click here.
* = Fewer than 20 IP, NERD at discretion of very handsome author.