FanGraphs Weekly Mailbag: August 16, 2025

I like a big lad who steals bases. That’s why I used to be thrilled when my buddy Kevin submitted a mailbag query about Juan Soto’s base-stealing binge this season. I assumed Davy Andrews could be the proper individual to reply Kevin’s question as a result of he’d already written concerning the Mets’ stolen-base effectivity again in June. And I used to be right; Davy was the proper individual. So excellent, actually, that he wrote an entire article about it as a substitute.

After I let Kevin find out about Davy’s piece, he adopted up with a query about Josh Naylor, who relatively shockingly has stolen 22 bases as of Friday morning. In fact, Naylor is now teammates with Cal Raleigh, one other sluggish runner with double-digit steals. The subject was too wealthy for me to withstand, in order that’s the place we’ll start in the present day.

Earlier than we do, although, I’d like to offer a fast completely happy twentieth birthday shoutout to FanGraphs! I’m positive David Appelman might be happy to know that I used to be 9 years outdated when he created and launched this glorious web site. Oh, and as at all times, I’ll remind you all that whereas anybody can submit a query, this mailbag is unique to FanGraphs Members. For those who aren’t but a Member and want to maintain studying, you possibly can join a Membership right here. It’s one of the simplest ways to each expertise the location and assist our workers, and it comes with a bunch of different nice advantages. Additionally, for those who’d wish to ask a query for an upcoming mailbag, ship me an electronic mail at mailbag@fangraphs.com.