After stealing another base last night, Jorge Polanco has 7 SB (in 8 attempts for a .875 success rate) in 25 games for New Britain, which puts him on pace for about 50 steals over 162 games.  This is despite limited chances as a result of his .288 OBP.  For a guy who was 4-8 stealing bases in 115 games for Cedar Rapids last year and who went just 10-18 for Fort Myers earlier in the season this is rather shocking.

 

Does anyone have any idea what's going on with this and if we can expect Polanco to be a legitimate base stealing threat going forward?  Base stealing could really round out his game so I'm hoping that this isn't a fluke.

 

 

Also, bit of a tangent, but I think it's worth pointing out Niko Goodrum's base stealing success this season: his 34 SB lead the Florida State League and only one player with over 25 steals has been caught fewer times than Goodrum's 3 (that would be Dalton Pompey, who has been caught 5 times in 13 attempts in AA).  After stealing 14 bases in 117 games across two seasons in Elizabethton (78%), Goodrum went 20-24 in 102 games last season (83%) and sits at 34-37 in 112 games (92%) this year.

Interesting observation. Maybe he learned something from one of the big league coaches in his stint here before going to AA (Molitor)? Or maybe someone in AA was able to give him a tip. Or maybe just SSS noise. Something to keep an eye on for sure.