28 Statis-Pro Cards Upgrades on Steals to A, AA or Rickey Henderson level AAA

 The increase in stolen bases this season due to the bases being larger and closer together has been taken advantage of by certain teams in particular - the Pirates, Cubs and Mets to name a few. Overall, 82% stolen base attempts have been successful compared to only 65% last year.

In a previous post, we updated the Stolen Base charts to get those percentages correct, with odd numbers on Stolen Base Attempts never resulted in a Caught Stealing, only in the runner not getting a break on the chart. However, we also just upgraded some cards who are stealing a lot more bases in the early season. To start the season, there were only two AA stolen base ratings, and neither of them had played this season, and there were zero AAA ratings - a rating reserved in Statis-Pro history for Rickey Henderson and a few other elites. 

On the other end of the extreme, there are still SP: E players who cannot steal, such as Daniel Vogelbach, who dreams of his first steal in this hilarious commercial.

However, we upgraded any player in the game who hit these thresholds so far this season:

SP: AAA (5 players now in the game) requires at least 8 steals so far AND at least one stolen base for every 3 singles or walks (33% on the chart below). Rickey Henderson did it 12 times including when he was 23 (130 steals and 221 singles or walks for 59%). Despite his bases being the old distance, he was successful 82% of the time and had a ratio of 33% for a SP: AAA at the ages of 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30,  31, 34, 38.

SP: AA (10 players now in the game) requires at least 6 steals so far AND at least one stolen base for every 4 singles or walks (25% on the chart below). Rickey hit this mark for a SP: AA at the age of 20, 28, 32, 33, 38, 39, 41 - yes at 41 years old he would have been one of the 15 best ranked base stealers in this game even without the bases being closer together and bigger.

SP: A (13 players upgraded to A, but others in the game were already SP: A) requires at least 4 steals so far AND at least one stolen base for every 7 singles or walks (14% on the chart below).

Other players kept their rating of SP: B, SP: C or SP: D, or if they are projected to to not steal a single base, then SP:E - meaning they are not allowed to steal in a game. While not listed on the chart, Vogelbach's career stats are:

SP: E (Daniel Vogelbach and several others). Vogelbach's career stats include 257 walks, 174 singles and 0 stolen bases for 0% if we included him on the chart below.

The chart of the 40 players who hit these marks are below in order. We list Tim Locastro and Tyler Wade first without a percentage, because they are pinch running to get steals with few at bats so the ratio doesn't matter. The best ratio is the 23 year old Rickey Henderson at 59%, with Jose Azocar the highest this year with 56% but he is only a SP: A because it is only 5 steals. The highest this year who qualifies is the Pirates Ji Hwan Bae of the Pirates, with 10 steals against only 19 total singles + walks.

We actually did not have cards in the game for Bae or Locastro because we did not expect them to have enough plate appearances, so we have added their cards to the game while for other players we just upgraded their SP rating as indicated on the table below with "SB orig" showing their card rating and then what it was changed to with "Now."

rnk	Rickey Henderson or	Team	SB orig	Now	SB	1b or W	Ratio
	Tim Locastro	NYM	new	A	4	0	PR
	Tyler Wade	OAK	A	A	4	3	PR
	23 year old Rickey	OAK			130	221	59%
1	Jose Azocar	SD	C	A	5	9	56%
2	Ji Hwan Bae	PIT	new	AAA	10	19	53%
	24 year old Rickey	OAK			108	212	51%
3	Jorge Mateo	BAL	A	AAA	8	16	50%
	27 year old Rickey	NYY			87	185	47%
4	Tim Anderson	CWS	A	A	5	11	45%
5	Corbin Carroll	AZ	A	AAA	10	22	45%
	29 year old Rickey	NYY			93	213	44%
6	Esteury Ruiz	OAK	A	AAA	8	21	38%
	38 year old Rickey	ANA			16	42	38%
	30 year old Rickey	OAK			52	136	38%
	21 year old Rickey	OAK			100	261	38%
7	Jazz Chisholm	MIA	A	AA	7	19	37%
	26 year old Rickey	NYY			80	214	37%
	25 year old Rickey	OAK			66	186	35%
	34 year old Rickey	TOR			22	62	35%
	31 year old Rickey	OAK			65	192	34%
8	Starling Marte	NYM	A	AA	7	21	33%
9	Ronald Acuna	ATL	A	AAA	13	39	33%
10	Jeremy Pena	HOU	B	AA	6	18	33%
11	Chas McCormick	HOU	C	A	4	12	33%
	22 year old Rickey	OAK			56	168	33%
12	Cedric Mullins	BAL	A	AA	10	31	32%
	39 year old Rickey	OAK			66	215	31%
	32 year old Rickey	OAK			58	188	31%
13	Nico Hoerner	CHC	B	AA	10	33	30%
14	Josh Lowe	TB	A	A	4	14	29%
	20 year old Rickey	OAK			33	113	29%
15	Anthony Volpe	NYY	A	AA	8	29	28%
	28 year old Rickey	NYY			41	147	28%
	33 year old Rickey	OAK			48	171	28%
16	Sam Hilliard	ATL	B	A	4	15	27%
17	Oswaldo Cabrera	NYY	C	A	4	15	27%
18	Andres Gimenez	CLE	A	AA	6	22	27%
19	Victor Robles	WSH	A	AA	6	23	26%
20	Myles Straw	CLE	A	AA	7	27	26%
	41 year old Rickey	SEA			31	121	26%
	38 year old Rickey	TOT			45	175	26%
21	Thairo Estrada	SF	B	AA	6	24	25%
22	J.T. Realmuto	PHI	A	A	4	16	25%
23	Conner Capel	OAK	C	A	4	16	25%
24	Amed Rosario	CLE	B	A	5	20	25%
	34 year old Rickey	TOT			53	214	25%
25	Wander Franco	TB	B	A	5	21	24%
26	Julio Rodriguez	SEA	A	A	5	21	24%
27	Bobby Witt	KC	A	A	5	22	23%
28	Travis Jankowski	TEX	A	A	4	18	22%
29	Jon Berti	MIA	A	A	4	18	22%
	38 year old Rickey	SDP			29	133	22%
	41 year old Rickey	TOT			36	166	22%
	40 year old Rickey	NYM			37	178	21%
	36 year old Rickey	OAK			32	153	21%
	34 year old Rickey	OAK			31	152	20%
30	Steven Kwan	CLE	C	A	7	37	19%
31	Whit Merrifield	TOR	A	A	4	22	18%
32	Daulton Varsho	TOR	B	A	4	22	18%
33	Christian Yelich	MIL	B	A	5	28	18%
	42 year old Rickey	SDP			25	139	18%
	37 year old Rickey	SDP			37	209	18%
34	Cody Bellinger	CHC	B	A	4	23	17%
	35 year old Rickey	OAK			22	130	17%
35	Gleyber Torres	NYY	C	A	5	31	16%
36	George Springer	TOR	B	A	4	25	16%
37	Jose Ramirez	CLE	A	A	4	27	15%
38	Trea Turner	PHI	A	A	4	29	14%
39	Kyle Tucker	HOU	A	A	5	36	14%
40	Ian Happ	CHC	C	A	4	29	14%