Jorge Mateo vs. Billy Hamilton

Jorge Mateo just finished his 9th game of the season. He already has amassed 12 stolen bases caught twice and has been caught twice. Billy Hamilton is the quickest name I could think of in terms of recent comparisons. Hamilton played short stop in his early Minor League days then later moving to the outfield. Mateo is currently 19 and will turn 20 on June 23rd. Baseball Reference considers this as Mateo's age 20 season while Hamilton's age 20 season was in 2011. In 2012 Hamilton stole 155 bases (MiLB Record) while caught 37 times. I am not saying that I am projecting Mateo to break this record but what I do want to get a feel for is how do the two speedsters stack up. To get an "apples to apples" type comparison I will be using both players age 20 seasons. Spoiler Alert...Hamilton stole 103 bases while being caught 20 times. Throughout this season, barring an extended injury, I will update the comparisons after a game that Mateo played in has gone final. For the purposes of this post I will update games 1 through 9 on this post.

                       Jorge Mateo (2015)     vs     Billy Hamilton (2011)

Game 1           0 SB   0 CS                         1 SB   0 CS

Game 2           0 SB   0 CS                         1 SB   0 CS

Game 3           1 SB   0 CS                         1 SB   0 CS

Game 4           4 SB   0 CS                         2 SB   0 CS

Game 5           3 SB   0 CS                         0 SB   0 CS

Game 6           0 SB   0 CS                         1 SB   0 CS

Game 7           0 SB   0 CS                         2 SB   0 CS

Game 8           1 SB   1 CS                         0 SB   0 CS

Game 9           3 SB   1 CS                         1 SB   1 CS

Totals            12 SB   2 CS                         9 SB   1 CS

* On pace for 173 stolen bases

Stats were pulled from Baseball-reference.com