There's an interesting article on the Grantland site about the art of stealing bases. The article also speaks to how the stolen bases is making a comeback now that "roid" ball is less prevalent. Coco Crisp provides interesting insight (and video) illustrating what he looks for to to identify a pitchers tell. Good read for pitchers as well.
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nice find, thanks for posting. This link is going into the save file
My son is a base stealer and he said it is a math problem. You find out how fast the pitcher is to home plate, what the catcher's pop time is and if your 27 yard dash time beats those two numbers, you win. Guys can gain additional advantages if they are willing to take bigger leads for example. That takes a tough-minded individual who might have to go diving back into first several times to beat the throw over before even getting a chance to steal. If you guess right on a pitch, ie., breking ball you buy even more time. With lefties, sometimes you have to guess first movement. With someone like Andy Pettite, you don't even try because he cheats 
When the SF Giants played the Dodgers at Candlestick Park, Alvin
Dark [Swamp Fox] told the groundskeeper to water down the area near 1b.
This hampered the base stealing of Murry Wills, Junior Gilliam and Willie Davis.
"there are many tricks of the trade"
Bob
