Willy Taveras stole five bases in Colorado’s 2-0 win over the Chicago White Sox on Saturday, and has stolen ten in the past ten games. With his thirty total bags already matching his season records from the past three years, I thought Swift Willy might give us a good chance to check in on the results of the other major league speedsters this year.

First, let’s take a look at the top fifteen or so base stealers so far this year:

See some familiar names? So far it looks like many of the players who were counted on being valuable for steals this year are providing just that value. Some players, like Ellsbury and Ichiro, are adding steals to their all-around great fantasy value; others, like Gomez and Gathright, have been providing steals but not much else to their owners; and still others, like Reyes and Upton, are doing well at the plate but are getting caught stealing quite a bit (both Reyes and Upton are posting career-worst stolen base percentages this year).

While this handy table might help you evaluate players you’re looking to trade for (or help you congratulate yourself for owning them), it doesn’t really help identify any “hidden” base stealers if you’re looking to scrounge up steals on the waiver wire or free agent list–most of these players, with the possible exceptions of Gathright and Matsui, are probably already on someone’s roster. So let’s look for players who might be good to pick up. We’ll limit the list to players with fewer than fifteen stolen bases and stolen base percentages of at least 69.2%, the lowest mark on our leaderboard. Here’s who we get:

Okay, I made the SB% cutoff a little lower, to include Ryan Theriot, who is required by Internet Law to be included in these kinds of lists. In any case, we now have a list of players who might be more “gettable” in your average fantasy league. I doubt Holliday, Soriano, Berkman, Phillips, Hart, Hunter, Damon, etc. etc. are anywhere near the free agent list, but there’s still a good amount of pleasant surprises here if you’re looking to pick up someone. Let’s cut down the list once more to cull the players I would guess are already owned in most leagues, leaving us with players who might conceivably be free agents, and include some more batting stats to see if we have any multiple-category pickups on our hands:

So. I probably went out on a limb or two in cutting out the players I thought unavailable and keeping the ones I deemed likely free agents, but here’s to hoping this helps you identify a base stealer or two that could help your team. Good luck!