Billy Hamilton has more stolen bases than 15 major-league teams

Cincinnati Reds speedster Billy Hamilton was at it again Monday, swiping four bags in Cincinnati’s 11-7 win over Minnesota to raise his stolen base total to 40 this season.

Unsurprisingly, that puts Hamilton in the league lead for steals and no one is particularly close. Miami Marlins second baseman Dee Gordon is second with 26, 14 back of Hamilton. Gordon led baseball in stolen bases last season with 64 while Hamilton was tied for second with 56.

Here’s the stat that will really knock your socks off though: Hamilton’s 40 steals are more than the combined totals of 15 major-league teams. That’s right, Hamilton has stolen more bases than half the teams in the big leagues.

[On this week’s StewPod: Looking back at a fun week in baseball with Jeff Passan]

With the calendar soon to flip to July, it’s not too early to start looking at Hamilton’s accomplishments in a historical context. Hamilton is on pace to swipe 86 bases, which would put him in a pretty exclusive class. There have only been 16 instances where a player has stolen more than 85 bases in MLB history and it hasn’t happened since Rickey Henderson got to 93 in 1988.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Hamilton’s thievery is how he has racked up so many steals despite a lowly .224 batting average and OBP of .273 in 67 games. Imagine how many more steals he would collect if he reached base at even a league-average rate, which is .314 this season in the NL.

But even if he doesn’t get on base all that often compared to his peers, when he does, Hamilton knows how to wreak havoc better than anyone else in the sport.

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Israel Fehr is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr