Calculate stolen base percentage and next-attempt scenarios or find the consecutive successful steals needed to reach a target rate.
Stolen Base Percentage Formula
Stolen base percentage measures successful steals as a share of official steal attempts. Attempts equal stolen bases plus times caught stealing:
SB is stolen bases and CS is caught stealing. A player with no stolen bases and no caught-stealing events has no defined percentage because no attempt has been recorded.
Next-Attempt Scenarios
The calculator shows how one more successful steal or one more caught-stealing event would change the rate. Both scenarios add one attempt, but only a success adds to the numerator.
Consecutive Steals Needed for a Target
Target mode assumes every added attempt succeeds and finds the smallest whole number that satisfies:
The threshold is rounded up and verified. After any caught-stealing event, later successes can approach a perfect cumulative rate but can never restore exactly 100 percent.
Example
Thirty stolen bases and ten caught-stealing events produce 40 attempts. Dividing 30 by 40 gives a 75 percent stolen base rate.
Interpretation and Limitations
- Use totals from one player, team, season, or other consistent scope.
- Official scoring rules determine whether a baserunning out is recorded as caught stealing.
- Raw success rate does not account for score, inning, count, runner speed, catcher, pitcher, or expected run value.
- The target mode is arithmetic only and is not advice to attempt a steal.
Browse the complete Baseball & Softball calculator collection or return to the Sports & Fitness Calculators hub.
Sources
Major League Baseball. MLB Glossary: Stolen-base Percentage, current edition.