Hey Razzball SAGNOF fans, I’ve constructed a lovely knee slapper for you all. Brace yourselves…
Knock Knock!
Who’s there?
Corey.
Um…Corey Feldman?
Nope! Corey … Julks’ got speed and a potential increase in playing time and might be worth a look for your fantasy roster as a 5th outfielder!
Ok. Time to put away the intentionally-bad-joke-writing-pen and admit that maybe I’m not cut out to write comedy for a living. But that doesn’t change the fact that Corey Julks can run.
The 27-year-old Houston outfielder carries an average 50 grade speed score, but he’s already up to 5 SB on the year in 29 games played. The minor league steals totals aren’t a barren landscape either. Julks stole 30 bases in 2018 (A/A+), and followed up with 10, 15, and 22 in his next three minor league stops (A+/AA/AAA) before his call up this year. His OBP the last two years in AA and AAA came in at an above average .349 and .351 respectively.
There were whispers about him in spring training, as some fantasy managers were looking at that power/speed upside for their late round picks. Admittedly, Julks was more of a dart throw in those AL only or deeper dynasty leagues.
One of the main questions, aside from being a “rookie” at age 27, was how was this guy going to make an impact at the big league level? With a projected OF of Kyle Tucker, Yordan Alvarez, Chas McCormick, and Michael Brantley, any regular playing time looked unlikely. Then a funny thing happened on that road to playing time. And by funny, I mean not that unexpected at all.
It was announced that Michael Brantley is still out with a shoulder injury that does not seem to be healing anytime soon. He was placed on the IL on June 28th and, unsurprisingly to most, the Astros just said that despite being slated to return to the lineup this week, he’s out indefinitely.
As they (don’t) say, one man’s setback is another Corey’s opportunity. That’s the good news.
The not-so-good news is that it seems like Julks may be in a timeshare with Jake Meyers. After striking out three times on Saturday, Julks sat the next two games and then promptly laced an RBI double in last night’s start. The OBP this year has been a pretty disappointing .280, and the K% is 29%.
Julks may not jump off the page or make you rush out to add him in anything but those deeper leagues, but this is a guy that has a history of SB success in the minors, two above average OBP rates the last two years, and is in his prime as a hitter. At the very least he’s worth a watchlist click, or an add to replace an injured starter on your roto-teams. If he can boost that OBP to give him more SB opportunities and transfer some more of that 55 power tool into more long balls, Julks could be a sneaky add in those deeper AL only leagues or deep 15 teamers.
Speaking of steals…and of course we are…here are the team leaders up to, but not including Tuesday night’s games…
| TEAM | GAMES PLAYED | AT-BATS | STOLEN BASES | CAUGHT STEALING |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pirates | 41 | 1343 | 50 | 17 |
| Guardians | 40 | 1329 | 42 | 7 |
| Athletics | 43 | 1440 | 41 | 9 |
| Orioles | 41 | 1372 | 40 | 8 |
| Rays | 42 | 1434 | 39 | 14 |
| Cubs | 41 | 1416 | 36 | 12 |
| Blue Jays | 41 | 1415 | 34 | 7 |
| Diamondbacks | 42 | 1416 | 33 | 7 |
| Marlins | 41 | 1371 | 33 | 9 |
| Yankees | 43 | 1404 | 33 | 12 |
A quick check in on some of the teams from our chart…
Toronto Blue Jays
- My hometown team finally cracks the top grouping in MLB with Whit Merrifield leading the charge. Merrifield’s 12 SB total is tops on the Jays, and was boosted this week by a 3 SB game on Saturday. He has 5 in his last 5 games.
- George Springer and Daulton Varsho come in behind Merrifield with 6 SB apiece.
- 9 Blue Jays have at least one SB…even B-Don’s favourite shortstop has one…but he’s also been caught stealing twice already this year.
New York Yankees
- With a .213 batting average, I don’t think Anthony Volpe is going to have many Yankees fans chanting “Derek Jeter Who?” anytime soon, but he does lead the Bronx Bombers with 13 SB.
- Oswaldo Cabrera and Gleyber Torres are tied behind Volpe with 5 SB each.
- The good news about one of our pre-season write-ups, Harrison Bader, is that he’s officially on the board with one steal! The bad news? He only has one in 14 games played since the return from injury and he’s been caught stealing once, too.
Milwaukee Brewers
- This is a bit of a cheat as they come in at #11 on our list, but we need to get away from the same teams each week, so here we are.
- Marty McFly and Doc Brown have landed in Milwaukee…and they’ve brought 2019 Christian Yelich back with them. Yelich leads the Brew Crew with 9 SB, (and zero CS), and looks like he’ll blow by the total 19 SB from last year before we get to this year’s all-star game. Health permitting, he could eclipse the 30 SB from 2019 by the time the season is done.
- Brice Turang and Joey Wiemer both have 5 SB. Willy Adames and Tyrone Taylor have 4 apiece.
For the profile this week, I’ll reference the Hittertron SB$ values for some of our best plays (May 16 – May 23).
Just a reminder that you can have full access to all of this, along with Streamonator and Relievonator (and more) with our 2023 Razzball Fantasy Baseball Subscriptions.
Geraldo Perdomo – ARI – SS – (15th SS for SB$ on Hittertron for the next 7 days)
Perdomo came in on Grey’s Buy/Sell from last Friday and I figured if the boss was pointing him out as a SAGNOF buy, I’d better dive in a bit to give you the details.
The Arizona SS qualifies with that single eligibility in NFBC leagues, but in other leagues with a 5 game minimum for in-season eligibility, he’ll be able to be slotted in at 2B as well.
The deeper dive tells me that I should’ve run with Perdomo as the lede today instead of Julks. But, alas, here we are.
The power numbers are not anything to be excited about as Perdomo hasn’t hit more than 6 HR in any of his professional seasons. There’s even good news there, though, as he’s hit 3 this year already. And, as far as all of the other checklist boxes are concerned, things are looking…
His scouting speed score comes in at an above average 60. He has a 31 SB season in the minors (2019). His OBP in 32 games this year? A very solid .426. The K% is a very respectable 15.2%. The BB%? A 11.4%. Not bad for a guy that had an NFBC ADP of 700+.
Perdomo has started 5 of the Diamondbacks last 6 games, and hit a two-run homer Monday night. At the very least, he’s worth checking for on your waiver wire to see if he’s available. He’s at 78% rostered in the 15 team NFBC leagues and is sitting at 54% in the Fantrax leagues.
I’m going to run with another quick chart here instead of going with another profile to look at. Just as an added piece of information, I wanted to plug in some of the data from our best teams to run against if you’re looking to make up some ground in steals. Streaming our SAGNOF guys against these opponents should help you boost those SB totals.
Here are the top 5 best teams to run against (worst opponent SB% by team)
| TEAM | OPP. SB% | NEXT 7 GAMES | PRIMARY CATCHER | CS% (CS/ATTEMPTS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MARLINS | 92.1 | WSH/@SF/@COL | JACOB STALLINGS | .50 (1/20) |
| ANGELS | 88.9 | @BAL/MIN/BOS | MATT THAISS | .67 (1/15) |
| PADRES | 88.9 | KC/BOS | AUSTIN NOLA | .100 (3/30) |
| DODGERS | 87.7 | MIN/@ST.L./@ATL | AUSTIN BARNES | .91 (3/33) |
| GUARDIANS | 87.5 | @CWS/@NYM/CWS | MIKE ZUNINO | .172 (5/29) |
You know who the usual suspects are for each of these teams by now, but I’m thinking that you might want to make sure you’ve got your CJ Abrams, Jorge Mateo, Cedric Mullins, Bobby Witt Jr., Edward Olivares, and Jarren Duran shares active for these games if you’re looking to make up ground in that stolen base category.
Before I leave for the week, here are our top 10 SB leaders (individual and, again, as of Tuesday afternoon). I’ll try to keep the chart handy for you each week just to use as a reference point if you find that it helps.
| NAME | TEAM | STOLEN BASES | CAUGHT STEALING | ON-BASE PERCENTAGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Esteury Ruiz | Athletics | 19 | 3 | .330 |
| Ronald Acuna Jr. | Braves | 17 | 2 | .436 |
| Ji Hwan Bae | Pirates | 14 | 4 | .296 |
| Jazz Chisholm Jr. | Marlins | 14 | 2 | .291 |
| Jorge Mateo | Orioles | 13 | 2 | .309 |
| Anthony Volpe | Yankees | 13 | 0 | .300 |
| Wander Franco | Rays | 12 | 4 | .354 |
| Nico Hoerner | Cubs | 12 | 2 | .348 |
| Whit Merrifield | Blue Jays | 12 | 1 | .333 |
| Cedric Mullins | Orioles | 12 | 0 | .357 |
That’s all, Razzfolks! If you have any ideas of players that you want a deeper look at, drop them in the comments. As always, if you have any questions or thoughts, you can always catch me here or @MarmosDad on Twitter. Good luck with your SAGNOF plays this week!
