NEWSLETTER
I know Billy Hamilton is fast. You know Billy Hamilton is fast. Anyone who watches baseball regularly knows Billy Hamilton is fast … but I didn’t know he was this fast.
Leading off from first base at Great American Ball Park yesterday, Hamilton took one too many steps off the bag and quickly found himself caught in a pickle. And yet, somehow, he managed not only to reach second base safely, he made the turn to third AND THEN WENT ON TO SCORE:
Wow.
Sure, there was an error on the play, but Hamilton basically got THREE free bags on that one bad toss. That is absolutely unbelievable. And it’s not like he trotted into home as the ball trickled away either – there was a legit race to the bag and Hamilton’s speed won out. That’s truly amazing.
What’s even crazier is that Hamilton has stolen more than 56 bases in each of the last four seasons, despite never owning an on-base percentage higher than .321. It’s a story as old as time, but if he could figure out how to get on base more often, his speed would be devastating to opponents.
And finally, I’ll leave you with the stolen leaderboards from 2014-2017:
- Billy Hamilton: 229 SBs
- Dee Gordon: 208 SB s
- Jose Altuve: 156 SBs
- Starling Marte: 126 SBs
- Rajai Davis: 125 SBs
- Jarrod Dyson: 120 SBs
- Ben Revere: 115 SBs
- Jonathan Villar: 109 SBs
- Charlie Blackmon: 101 SBs
- Jacoby Ellsbury: 101 SBs
