From those comparisons, I noticed a couple of things. For the guys that stole 80+, they often had a better success rate of stealing and scored runs at a higher percentage.
The 80+ guys had 12 of 19 seasons where the success rate was 80% or more. The leaders from this decade have 11/20. You would think that with guys being more selective these days and picking their spots, the success rates would go up. The run % were higher for those big base stealers too.
15%+
80s-17 of 23 seasons
2000s-11 of 20 seasons
18%+
80s-8 of 23 seasons
2000s-1 of 20 seasons
Cannon says that studies show that it isn't worth losing an out for a base but the guys that took more chances and stole more bases scored runs at a higher percentage were able to do so without sacrificing their success rates and were putting themselves in scoring position and scoring more runs than these guys are today.
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The real horses of the year (1986-2020)
Manila, Java Gold, Alysheba, Sunday Silence, Go for Wand, In Excess, Paseana, Kotashaan, Holy Bull, Cigar, Alphabet Soup, Formal Gold, Skip Away, Artax, Tiznow, Point Given, Azeri, Candy Ride, Smarty Jones, Ghostzapper, Invasor, Curlin, Zenyatta, Zenyatta, Goldikova, Havre de Grace, Wise Dan, Wise Dan, California Chrome, American Pharoah, Arrogate, Gun Runner, Accelerate, Maximum Security, Gamine
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