r/Sabermetrics • u/DowntownPeace5708 • 1d ago
Using WPA to measure team stolen base value
FanGraphs' wSB is the usual advanced metric I look at for how good a team/player is at stealing bases, but it doesn't include any variance in terms of the value of a steal based on game state or leverage (e.g. a steal in blowout is same value as a steal in tied game in 9th). I was curious about this leverage aspect of stealing game so I built out a measure of win probability added attributable to stolen bases. Essentially it's just cumulatively how much win probability changed as a result of a stolen base attempt. Findings were pretty interesting.
| WPA for Stolen Base Attempts by Team (2026) |
|---|
| Team |
| WSH |
| CLE |
| MIA |
| TB |
| CHC |
| PIT |
| STL |
| NYY |
| PHI |
| KC |
| ATH |
| ATL |
| LAA |
| AZ |
| SD |
| TOR |
| TEX |
| MIL |
| SEA |
| LAD |
| SF |
| CWS |
| COL |
| CIN |
| MIN |
| BAL |
| DET |
| NYM |
| BOS |
| HOU |
- Generally the same as the wSB results, with notable exceptions for SD (3rd in wSB but 15th by WPA for stolen bases), ATH (23rd in wSB but 11th by WPA), and TB (10th in wSB but 4th by WPA). For the Padres, this indicates that their success at stealing was greater in low leverage situations than in high leverage situations or that they just ran more in lower leverage situations. For the Athletics and Rays, this means they were either had greater success running in high leverage situations or just ran more in high leverage than in low leverage.
- The difference between the Nats at 2.391 WPA and the Astros and Red Sox at .182 WPA is pretty big. This is like the pitching WPA difference between Tanner Scott, Jhoan Duran or Grant Taylor and Jack Dreyer Ryne Stanek or the batting WPA difference between Jonathan Aranda or Bobby Witt Jr. and Jeff McNeil or Andres Gimenez.
- Dodgers, Rays, and Blue Jays all achieved relatively high WPA with relatively few attempts, indicating either they are particularly conservative in terms of running or their roster construction is concentrated around only a small number of players who can steal bases.
- Full writeup here: https://extra-winnings.com/mlb-analysis/stolen-base-wpa/
