Welcome back to another installment of Top Dynasty Keepers. That waiver wire in fantasy baseball is now on fire as players are making adds and drops in reaction to the first week of the season.
This week we are going to take a look at two second basemen who play in the National League Central Division – Brice Turang of the Milwaukee Brewers and Ji Hwan Bae of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Road to The Show
Turang had an outstanding prep career in California, leading the Brewers to select him with the 21st overall pick in the 2018 draft. Entering the season as the No. 4 prospect in the Brewers system, Turang entered this season as the Brewers’ fourth-ranked prospect and was ranked as high as the 88th best prospect by Baseball America and 96th by MLB.com prior to the 2021 season before falling out of the Top 100.
Given a chance to earn a spot on the Opening Day roster this spring, Turang did so and is off to a solid start. Now, he is starting to get love from fantasy players as he is now rostered in 13.2% of ESPN leagues, an increase of 11.9% over the last seven days, and in 27% of Yahoo leagues.
Bae, who hails from South Korea, originally signed with the Atlanta Braves in 2017 but was declared a free agent after the fallout from Atlanta’s international signing violations. The Pirates swooped in and signed Bae in the spring of 2018 for $1.2 million. Unlike Turang, Bae is not getting as much love from fantasy owners as he is owned in 2.3% of ESPN leagues, though that is up two percent over the last seven days. In Yahoo leagues, he is rostered in 19% of leagues.
Now that we know a little more about Turang and Bae, let’s break down each player.
Brice Turang
| YEAR | LEVEL | AB | HR | RBI | SB | AVG | OBP | SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | RK | 159 | 1 | 18 | 14 | .283 | .396 | .352 |
| 2019 | A|A+ | 473 | 3 | 37 | 30 | .256 | .367 | .707 |
| 2021 | AA|AAA | 431 | 6 | 53 | 20 | .258 | .348 | .362 |
| 2022 | AAA | 532 | 13 | 78 | 34 | .286 | .360 | .412 |
| 2023 | Brewers | 16 | 1 | 5 | 2 | .313 | .421 | .563 |
After being selected in the first round of the 2018 draft, Turang was sent to Rookie ball and had a nice showing, slashing .283/.396/.352 and he reached Triple-A by the age of 21 before spending all of 2022 at Triple-A.
The Brewers added Turang to the 40-man roster after the 2022 season and gave him a chance to earn a spot on the roster during spring training. Turang did what he had to do as he slashed .282/.349/.385 with a home run, four RBI, and three steals. Turang has only seen action at second base so far for the Brewers, but he spent most of this time on the field as a shortstop in the minors as well as seeing action at third base and center field last year at Triple-A Nashville.
Speed is His Game
Turang has never been a high-average hitter. His career minor league slash line is .269/.363/.371 with only 23 homers in 1,595 at-bats. While Turang has not hit for a high average, he has a strong grasp of the strike zone and good contact skills as he had a 13% walk rate in the minors and only an 18% strikeout rate. His small sample size with the Brewers is a 10.5% strikeout rate with a 15.8% walk rate.
What Turang does very well is run. In 419 games in the minors, the left-handed hitter stole 98 bases while only being caught 18 times for an 84.5% success rate. So far with the Brewers he has two steals in two attempts.
Developing Power
As I mentioned, Turang hit only 23 homes in the minors, but 13 of those came last season thanks to adding strength to his 6-foot frame and sacrificing a few extra strikeouts for the added power as his strikeout rate was slightly higher (19.5%) than his career rate. He showed off his developing power with the Brewers this past week by turning on an inside pitch and hitting a grand slam for his first major league homer.
Ji Hwan Bae
| YEAR | LEVEL | AB | HR | RBI | SB | AVG | OBP | SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | RK | 129 | 0 | 13 | 10 | .271 | .362 | .349 |
| 2019 | A | 328 | 0 | 38 | 31 | .323 | .403 | .430 |
| 2021 | RK|AA | 372 | 8 | 33 | 20 | .281 | .360 | .422 |
| 2022 | AAA | 473 | 8 | 53 | 30 | .289 | .362 | .430 |
| 2022 | Pirates | 33 | 0 | 6 | 3 | .333 | .405 | .424 |
| 2023 | Pirates | 18 | 1 | 2 | 2 | .222 | .263 | .444 |
Born in Daegu, South Korea, Bae entered camp this season with a solid shot of winning the starting job at second base. But the lefty-hitting Bae didn’t exactly set the world on fire in March, slashing .234/.280/.255 with two RBI, four steals, 11 strikeouts, and 2 walks in 47 at-bats. Those numbers didn’t come close to his past history at the plate. His career minor league slash line is .294/.373/419 and last season he slashed .333/.405/.424 in 33 at-bats with the Pirates.
The high strikeout rate and low walk rate are not characteristic of Bae as well. In the minors, he struck out in just 18.6 percent of his plate appearances while walking 10.5% of the time.
While Bae did not have a great spring. his competition for the starting job at second base – Mark Mathias and Rodolfo Castro – didn’t take advantage of their chances either. Mathias slashed .250/.432/.286 with 10 strikeouts while Castro slashed .218/.259/.345 with 20 strikeouts, allowing Bae to grab most of the time at second base to start the season.
Speed is His Game II…and Versatility
Like Turang, Bae’s biggest asset is his speed – which he uses to get on base and then make life miserable for opposing pitchers and catchers. In 315 career games in the minors, he swiped 91 bags, though his success rate is not at the level of Turang’s as Bae was thrown out 31 times for a 74.6% success rate.
Bae is also strong with the glove at both second base and center field. Last year he started four games at second, four in center field and one in left field. This season he has started three games at second and moved to center field later in the game as well as earning two starts in center.
The Verdict
Turang and Bae are very similar players. Both players’ best tool is their speed, they both make contact and both have a good eye at the plate. Additionally, both players are versatile in the field, though Turang has only played second so far this season.
During their time in the minors, Bae had the better slash line across the board. However, it appears Turang is starting to develop his power more, as seen by the 13 homers he hit in the minors last year. While it is very early in the season, Turang is showing the ability to drive the ball with a 7.1 Barrel% and average EV of 89.2 mph with a launch angle of 20.2% (MLB average is 12.1%).
Compare those numbers to Bae through his first 18 at bats this year. Bae has a nice 7.7 Barrel%, but his average EV is 86.4 mph and his launch angle is only 8.8%. When adding in what he did in his brief time with the Pirates in 2022, Bae has a 2.5 Barrel%, 84.2 average EV, and 5.8% launch angle.
Go with Turang
In the end, though it is close, I like Turang more than Bae.
Both players have speed, but Turang has had the better success rate during his career. While I don’t think Turang is ever going to be considered a power hitter, he will likely reach double digits each season while being a menace on the base paths.
Bae will be good for a lot of steals as well, but I don’t see double-digit home run seasons in his future, though he will hit plenty of doubles and triples to help his slugging percentage. With both players being pretty similar otherwise, Turang’s likely ability to hit more homers is the deciding factor that gives him the slight edge over Bae.
Thanks for reading and come back again next week.
