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SAGNOF : Some Fresh Basabe For Your Ray Sushi

August 23, 2023 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball, SAGNOF, Steals | 3 Comments

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Hey, Razzball stolen base enthusiasts! It’s time for another Wednesday edition of SAGNOF with your favorite roto-pops, MarmosDad. 

In this week’s profile, I decided to do a bit of an ‘under the hood’ dive on a spicy new middle infielder that a lot of us fantasy players were not tracking for a promotion. For reasons that I’m sure aren’t too tough to figure out, Tampa Bay found themselves in a bit of a tight spot over the past couple of weeks as they lost their franchise player to the restricted list. (Edit: Wander Franco was placed on administrative leave by MLB yesterday morning).

Everything else aside, and simply focusing on the baseball ramifications for the 76-51 club, replacing an everyday shortstop that has 17 HR, 64 R, 58 RBI, and 30 SB is a pretty tall task.

Enter Osleivis Basabe. 

Originally signed by the Texas Rangers as an international free agent in 2017-2018, Basabe was one of the lesser hyped prospects that Tampa received in the 2020 Nathaniel Lowe (all praise his name) trade. 

The scouting grades across the board are favorable. Basabe’s hit tool is the carrying card at a 60-grade (per MLB.com). The speed and arm scores come out at 55-grade. Fielding is a touch lower at an average 50-grade. Not surprisingly, the 5’11” shortstop’s power is the lowest of the bunch at a 40-grade. 

So no power means no counting stats or RBIs then, right? Well…

This was Basabe’s second double of the night on Saturday. His first was a ground ball through the left side. A lot of players would have been content with the single, but, in that first at-bat, Basabe sprinted out of the box and cruised into second base with his first XBH of the night.

Everything looks good so far, but there are a few things to look at here for sure. Most importantly, we all know the Rays are gonna Rays. With other minor league call-ups like Jonathan Aranda and Curtis Mead, it’s tough to predict any everyday playing time for Rays hitters. BUT…this looks like it could be different. Aranda is definitely not a threat to playing time at SS. Curtis Mead has all of 7 GP in the minors at SS. Taylor Walls, the Rays go-to defensive replacement at SS is still on the IL with a left oblique strain. Add to that a Kevin Cash quote that said Walls is, “is still a ways away from returning”, and things look good for an extended Basabe opportunity.

This kid might not hammer out a handful of home runs, but he’s certainly hit the ground running. He’s 6-for-14 in his last three games and hitting the ball hard. In that August 19th double header, Basabe started both games at SS and upped his triple slash to .286/.355/.393 (through 7 MLB games). His AAA Durham line was .296/.351/.426 with 16 SB and just 6 CS, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Basabe can carve out a role as the everyday SS the rest of the way.

This graphic from Rays Metrics provides a bit of context as far as hard hit% and contact rates go, especially in comparison with the two teammates I mentioned earlier.

I managed to secure Basabe as a replacement for my everyday SS in the AL-only league ($7 FAAB out of $100), but swung a deal for Carlos Correa (traded Harrison Bader) just in case things don’t go as planned. If you need a SS replacement, there are worse places to look than this guy. He might not blow the doors off like a tablespoon of wasabi, (if you’ve never ingested that much at a time, I suggest you keep it that way), but he was ranked as the Rays #6 prospect for a reason. Plus, you have to give a couple of bonus points for this smile. 

OH! And in one final late Tuesday night edit…I guess what I said about hitting the ball hard works. Basabe just hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 8th inning to help the Rays secure a 12-4 victory against Colorado. I hate to flood the page with links, but this one is a beauty too…

40-grade power, hey? Insert blinking eyes guy gif here.

Speaking of guys with potential, how about those league leaders?

 

NAME TEAM STOLEN BASES CAUGHT STEALING ON-BASE PERCENTAGE
Ronald Acuna Jr. Braves 56 10 .417
Esteury Ruiz Athletics 49 9 .301
Corbin Carroll Diamondbacks 37 5 .353
Bobby Witt Jr. Royals 37 9 .320
CJ Abrams Nationals 33 3 .302
Julio Rodriguez Mariners 33 9 .336
Nico Hoerner Cubs 32 5 .340
Wander Franco Rays 30 10 .344
Ha-Seong Kim Padres 28 7 .370
Jake McCarthy Diamondbacks 26 3 .325

 

  • Even with the return of Esteury Ruiz, it was starting to look like a one horse race to the top of SAGNOF mountain. Over the past 15 days, Ruiz has 5 SB to Acuna’s 3, so if they can keep that pace over the next 6 weeks, we could have a neck-and-neck push to the finish line.
  • Speaking of top base stealers over the last 15 days, CJ Abrams finds himself on the top of that list once again pacing the league with 6 SB (1 CS).
  • Bobby Witt Jr. keeps on proving his fans right, too. After a slow start, and with some people doubting his first round draft status, Witt went a perfect 5-0 in SB:CS over the past two weeks. As I mentioned before, his OBP over that same span was impressive as well (.407) and keeps boosting his season total.
  • One of our profiles from a couple of weeks ago (SAGNOF: Ill Kim-munication) makes our list this week. Ha-Seong Kim was the lede for Grey’s round-up yesterday, and as Grey pointed out, the Padres MI has an excellent shot at finishing with (at least) a 20 HR, 30 SB season. Not bad from a guy that was considered a utility player ‘just filling in’ at SS during Tatis’s April suspension.
  • The bottom spot on our list this week belongs to Jake McCarthy. I shed a tiny tear for McCarthy’s newest demotion (sent back down to Reno last Monday). So much for that mid-season rebirth that we were counting on. The 3 SB in August were nice, but there were far too many zeroes in the XBH and hit columns to keep that boat afloat in the desert. 

We’ll finish with the profile of the week. In these, I’ll usually reference the Hittertron SB$ value here just so you can see what kind of roto-dollars the guy is projected to earn over the next 7 days. 

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.

 

Nolan Schanuel – 1B – Anaheim (34th 1B on Hittertron this week – $0.2 SB$)

Well, a few weeks ago we profiled Forrest Wall in this space and he was called up a week later. Then a couple of weeks ago we profiled Masyn Winn and, low and behold, he got the call from the MLB club too. Last week’s Xavier Edwards is still waiting by his phone, but I’m still holding out hope there.

Now that teams are past that magic 45 days remaining mark in the season, the odds of us seeing more rookie call ups certainly will increase. Just as a quick recap, players hold their rookie status for the 2024 season if they (a) spend less than 45 days on the major league roster, and/or (b) accrue fewer than 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the bigs.

With that said, I kind of went with a cheat here. Nolan Schanuel has already gotten the call to the majors, but the story alone warrants a check in. 

The guys have Schanuel down in their title for this week’s pod (Schanuel #5), but I wanted to throw my write-up here anyway before I listened to it. Hopefully, I don’t just run down everything they say in there. They go over quite a few players that will retain their rookie status for 2024 as well.

After the Angels’ newest 1B, CJ Cron, landed on the IL with lower-back inflammation, the easy guess was that Anaheim would shift Brandon Drury or Mike Moustakas over to first base and increase the ABs for someone already on their big league roster. Eduardo Escobar? Sure. Matt Thaiss? Yep, that makes sense. 

Well, Perry Minasian and Arte Moreno pulled quite the ‘hold my Heineken’ and shocked the baseball world when they not only called up a minor leaguer to replace Cron, but went with one that had been on the payroll for less than six weeks. Talk about fast tracking that career advancement.

Let’s get something out of the way first, though. This being a SAGNOF post after all, Schanuel is not a traditional steals darling. He of the ‘40-grade speed’ is not expected to make a huge difference on the basepaths the rest of the way, especially when he checks in at 6’4” and 220 lbs.

But the 21 year old has 2 SB in 73 MiLB at-bats, and is batting atop an Angels lineup that is in ‘playoffs or bust’ mode right now. Getting drafted, then called up 40 days later is pretty crazy. I can say that I certainly wasn’t doing anything (and I mean anything) this productive at the age of 21.

The future hit tool is predicted to max out at 60-grade. The power is also predicted to reach 55-grade as Schanuel gains more experience. But in 21 games in the minor leagues, Schanuel certainly showed that he can get on base. The youngster had 21 BB to 10 K’s in his brief minor league stops. Add that to his impressive triple slash of .370/.510/.493 line and apparently it was time to give the kid a shot.

Cool. But can this kid even field a position? 

Why thank you, Captain Italics. I thought you’d never ask.

As I said before, this is a bit of a cheat in that Schanuel isn’t really a SAGNOF prospect or even a minor league stash, but when a kid gets called up less than two months after he’s drafted AND is batting leadoff ahead of Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani (last night)…well, needless to say as a fantasy community, we’re paying attention.

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 X/Twitter. Good luck with your SAGNOF plays this week!

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