Robles, Edwards bringing SBs back

The days of Rickey Henderson, Tim Raines, and Vince Coleman are long gone. You can blame the "Moneyball" effect of devaluing stolen bases or the rise in analytics generally. Or maybe it's just that chicks dig the long ball.

Whatever it was, it led to a pretty significant decline in stolen bases over the past generation. But this DMBL season seems to be an exception in the timeline. By no means is he going to break any records but Victor Robles of Allentown just became the first player in almost 20 years to steal 50 bases. And Vancouver's Xavier Edwards is right behind him. El Paso's Ronald Acuna, Jr. is 3rd with 32 after a recent flurry of thefts the past couple of weeks.

But it was Edwards and Robles who jumped out ahead of the pack from the start of the season.

Robles stole No. 50 in Game 135. That was already the most stolen bases in the DMBL since at least 2012. No. 51 came in Game 140, putting him on pace to challenge 60 (58), with 21 games remaining for Allentown heading into Sunday's doubleheader. It's now the most SBs in the DMBL since Jose Reyes had 52 in 2007 for D.C. With 51, Robles passed Carl Crawford, who stole 50 for Las Vegas in 2005, to move into a tie for 9th most in a season (Craig Biggio, Vancouver, 1999, and Juan Pierre, Hillsborough, 2006). Edwards stole his 45th base in Game 139 on Friday and with 22 games left for Vancouver, that puts him on pace to crack 50 (52) as well. 

Both have been consistently hitting lead-off for their respective squads and both were 1st round selections this year. Only Edwards is a rookie as Robles played several seasons with Sardine City as an emerging prospect.

On a side note, the single-season record of 78 stolen bases by Kenny Lofton in 1997 was an outlier even for the DMBL's all-time leader (284). He never had more than 29 in any other year but did collect at least 20 SBs 6 times over his 14 seasons.

Not only is Robles likely to take home the stolen base crown but he's made a move on the batting title, taking the lead last week and currently hitting .320 with Shohei Ohtani of Poovey Farms (.319) and Blue Ridge's Jose Iglesias (.318) hot on his heels. Edwards was challenging for the battling title most of the season too until a recent drop off has him a .295, still tied for 7th in DMBL. Robles also has mashed a league-high 52 doubles, along with Alec Bohm of Poovey Farms, and until last night was tied with Hoboken's Matt Wallner with 18 HBP.

Back to swiping bags though. You have to go back to 2015 to find anyone within a few thefts of 50. That year, Hillsborough's Dee Gordon swiped 47 bags, edging Jose Altuve of Tucson (46) and Empire City's Ben Revere (44). (Incidently, Gordon led the league two consecutive years, with 36 in 2016). It was the high-water mark in recent DMBL history with that many players over 40 SBs. The average among the top 10 league leaders that year was almost 30 SBs, by far the highest average going back to 2013. During that same period, the league leader averaged 34 SBs. 

There was a five-year stretch (2018-2023) where the league leader eclipsed 30 steals just once. That was in 2019 when Raul Mondesi, Jr. of Arkansas had 46 -- almost twice as many as teammate Lorenzo Cain (24), who finished 2nd. It took just 24 stolen bases to top the DMBL in 2020 (Jon Berti of Philly and Tucson's Trea Turner) and 2022 (Starling Marte, Livingston)! Those were the leanest years in recent memory with the league's top 10 averaging just 16.9 and 16.3, respectively, with averages on the upswing ever since. Marte won the SB crown in another down year, 2018, when the top 10 averaged just 16.7 and he robbed 26 while playing for Blue Ridge.

It's not just the top of the league leader list that's swiping more bags in 2025, it's the whole top 10. Three players currently are tied for 10th with 20 stolen bases and it's been literally decades since the No. 10 player had that many. Three times in the last decade it took just 12 stolen bases to finish in the top 10 and some years just 13 or 14. This season, the group of top 10 league leaders average 27.8 SBs, with about 20 games to go for most players. That trails only the 2015 season when 3 players eclipsed 40 SBs, which averaged 29.9.

Another sign that SBs are up: El Paso led the league last year with 123, way ahead of Blue Ridge with just 77. It was the first time since 2019 that a team reached 100 (Arkansas, 104). The Chihuahuas currently rank 3rd (106) with Vancouver 2nd (119) and Allentown topping the DMBL, already matching last year's 123 by El Paso. That compares with what's likely the all-time low for stolen bases by a team: the 2020 Hoboken Cutters (56-106), who collected a paltry 10 SBs against 9 CS. But at least they broke even. The 2017 San Francisco Experience stole 11 bases but were caught 15 times!