Mississippi high schooler steals 103 bases ... in 30 games

I imagine he got the benefit of some generous official scoring decisions, but his speed is apparently legit. He's signed with an elite JuCo program (Chipola) and is supposedly an early-round draft prospect.

Also, a great name: Silento Sayles.

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20130419/SPORTS06/304190043/Not-typo-Port-Gibson-s-Sayles-finishes-103-steals

Interestingly enough, Sayles' hometown (Port Gibson) is about two hours from Billy Hamilton's (Taylorsville).

 

We had a kid here a few years ago who challenged the record. The coach would credit him for two stolen bases if he took second and then moved to third on an overthrow. Pitcher misses first with a pickoff throw? Stolen base.

 

Horseshit. I know how these high school teams keep score. You pad steals stats by:

1. Giving a guy a steal when the catcher makes no attempt.
2. Giving the guy on the back end of a first and third a steal when he gets to second and the runner is held on third, or a play attempted on the runner at third.
3. Or, the favorite trick we caught one high school team in our area doing a while back, doing a hit-and-run with a guy on first, and giving him the steal when the batter put the ball in play on the ground. The coach said, "he broke for second and would have stolen the base anyway."

On high school teams where a parent or a player's girlfriend is keeping score, this crap is rampant. Our paper stopped taking two stats a long time ago: steals in baseball and tackles in football.

 

Forgot about those scenarios. Will add them to my list.

 

#3 is horseshit indeed, but #s 1 and 2 are legitimate steals. The only time they wouldn't be is if the score is out of hand and the other team has no reason to care whether he advances.

 

We had one small school reporting unusually high SB totals. Covered a game, found out they were awarding steals on passed balls and wild pitches. Never mentioned their SB totals in a game we didn't staff the rest of the season.

 

Someone should drag up the old "does the home book rule" thread. That was great. I will if I can find it.

 

I just found it and bumped it to the top of the journalism board. As an added bonus, I saw the thread starter and, after months of hearing about this guy, get to finally see some of Carlton Banks' work. Should be fun.

 

#1 is not necessarily as steal when it is deemed uncontested. If a player is basically being given 2nd.

 

No, JC, that only applies toward the end of games when his run wouldn't matter. If it's the third inning and a three-run game, say, the question isn't whether the other team tried to stop it. The question is whether there is a strategic advantage to preventing the advance.

It sounds like you have a guy with major league speed at least (if not overall major league ability) running against catchers with high school arms, so this will happen. Not unlike home run records.

 

This guy is from our neck of the woods (I didn't write this story, BTW). He's a great player and has been a five-year starter for them. Will probably be drafted in June. Also been their starting quarterback for four years.
I was skeptical of the stats.
Here's his game-by-game breakdown:

http://www.maxpreps.com/athletes/U51p1NAZm0iRov8RgeeJMQ/baseball-spring-13/stats-silento-sayles.htm

The things that made me skeptical was the math.
He got on base 60 times via hit or walk, and 21 of those were extra base hits. Not sure how many times he reached by error or fielder's choice. That means he'd have to steal a base every time he got on, usually more than one, and home more than a few times. Despite those requirements to reach 103 steals, he only scored 38 runs. The team scored 136.
As others have pointed out, there's also plenty of opportunities to massage stolen base stats. If you get 40 or 50 in a 25-game high school regular season, that's a great year. He had 35 last season, 21 the year before that. Those I'll buy without hesitation. I'd even buy 60 or 70 given his talent and history. 103 seems off.
The one thing he gets in his favor is their schedule. They're not in a bad division, but their non-division schedule was dreck. There were a lot of opportunities there for steals, and if he breaks for second and the pitcher throws a dirtball or even wild pitch, that's still a steal.

 

I should have read the rest of your post because that is the exact scenario I was talking about. You really should have gone OOP reading comprehension on me.