FanGraphs Weekly Mailbag: August 16, 2025
I love a large lad who steals bases. That’s why I was thrilled when my friend Kevin submitted a mailbag question about Juan Soto’s base-stealing binge this season. I thought Davy Andrews would be the perfect person to answer Kevin’s query because he’d already written about the Mets’ stolen-base efficiency back in June. And I was correct; Davy was the perfect person. So perfect, in fact, that he wrote a whole article about it instead.
When I let Kevin know about Davy’s piece, he followed up with a question about Josh Naylor, who rather shockingly has stolen 22 bases as of Friday morning. Of course, Naylor is now teammates with Cal Raleigh, another slow runner with double-digit steals. The topic was too rich for me to resist, so that’s where we’ll begin today.
Before we do, though, I’d like to give a quick happy 20th birthday shoutout to FanGraphs! I’m sure David Appelman will be pleased to know that I was nine years old when he created and launched this wonderful website. Oh, and as always, I’ll remind you all that while anyone can submit a question, this mailbag is exclusive to FanGraphs Members. If you aren’t yet a Member and would like to keep reading, you can sign up for a Membership here. It’s the best way to both experience the site and support our staff, and it comes with a bunch of other great benefits. Also, if you’d like to ask a question for an upcoming mailbag, send me an email at mailbag@fangraphs.com.
Matt is the associate editor of FanGraphs. Previously, he was the baseball editor at Sports Illustrated. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Men’s Health, Baseball Prospectus, and Lindy’s Sports Magazine. Follow him on Twitter @ByMattMartell and Blue Sky @mattmartell.bsky.social.
I cannot think of a baseball name that is both so grotesque and clever as “Thickey Henderson.”
Something that inspires equal parts admiration and revulsion.
I both wish I had come up with it and would be disgusted to meet the person who did.