SAGNOF: A Breakout For Royce? Noice!

Happy mid-week, Razzball faithful! Another week means another Wednesday check-in on the land of SAGNOF with your favorite father, MarmosDad!

For the lede today, I was kind of torn between choosing a full-of-potential recent call-up and a (finally) healthy star in the making. Both offer some serious upside in both redraft and keeper leagues. Each would be a very good add if you’re looking for a middle infield active roster replacement. Both offer upside like when we checked in on Osleivis Basabe last week.

For the sake of trying to manage both time and the back-to-school madness that is bubbling over in MarmoLand, it’s going to be a certain injury-prone (ugh) Minnesota infielder that graces our introductory paragraphs here. Casting aside the Parker (Meadows / Royce) Lewis can’t lose pun – and, thus, avoiding alienating any readers that were born after 1983 – we’re going to head out to the Twin cities for a roll with Royce.

It’s fairly easy to convince anyone who rosters him that, at least when he’s in the lineup, Royce is Noice!

Grey wrote up a blurb on him in his daily roundup yesterday here and outlined just how dangerous Lewis can be if he’s playing regularly. The superstar potential sounds a bit hyperbolic, but the swing on his Monday grand slam is a pretty good indication that this kid could make good on his projected 70-grade raw power skill.

In August, Lewis has played in 12 games, and carries a triple slash line of .298/.389/.617. He’s hit 4 of his 9 (total) homers in the last two weeks.

The 9 HR, 21 R, 29 RBI in 144 AB are certainly encouraging but, of course, what does that mean if we’re looking for SBs too? 

He does have two steals on the year, but with a history of double digit stolen base totals in each of his four minor league seasons, I don’t think it would be outside the realm of possibilities for Lewis to steal a handful more before the end of the season. The if there, and it’s a fairly big sized IF, would be if the Twins think he can utilize that 55-60 grade speed or IF they want him to be cautious to avoid another injury.

Either way, I’m in on Lewis for the rest of the year (and for him hopefully pushing my Razzslam team to at least the wild card title). I think it goes without much explanation he should be high on your offseason keeper league target lists too, if your leagues allow trading after the snow flies.

As Grey often says about these kind of players, with continued success over the last 5 weeks, the 2024 Royce Lewis sleeper may just write itself. Noice!

For our chart work today, I wanted to check in on those starting pitchers that we can look to take advantage of when streaming for stolen bases. Truss (thankfully) found the data buried a bit in the expanded stats on MLB.com, so I managed to put it together in a nice and handy chart for you to peep if you want some help setting up for your head-to-head matchups this weekend. Hopefully, this can help you decide between that last outfielder with some speed or the guy that gives you some power with no average.

Just a few notes to go along with the names above…

• There were some relievers sprinkled in with the worst SP for SB success rates, but I left these out. For what it’s worth, two of the four leading relievers for SB allowed were from the New York Mets…because of course they were.
• The anti-hero at the top here takes an even bigger punch to the groin as Thor was DFA’ed by Cleveland following his 6 IP and 3 HR allowed outing against Toronto on Sunday. 
• Dick Mountain AKA Rich Hill had his turn in the rotation skipped last week due to ineffectiveness (AKA getting rocked in his last 3 starts). Yu Darvish’s IL stint could give Hill another opportunity to start this week, though. For the record, Darvish would also show up on this list, (at #10), but I left him out because of the injury.
• Mike Clevinger needed an edit last night after he was among the list of many players designated for assignment Tuesday evening. Going over the waiver process is probably best suited for another article. The bottom line is Clevinger should probably be pitching elsewhere come Thursday morning.
• Patrick Corbin showing up on a list like this probably isn’t too surprising, but I would’ve lost the bet that he’s the guy with the highest total pickoffs among the group.
• Last year’s NL Cy Young winner has been better since the All-Star break, but Sandy Alcantara is tied at the bottom here with Kevin Gausman for SB allowed with 16.

From the look of it, our teams to run on are the Padres and Nationals. Marcus Stroman made the list too, but isn’t due back for a couple weeks, so playing your SAGNOF guys against the Cubs is a good bet as well. Lastly, the White Sox had both Mike Clevinger and Michael Kopech here, but they also have Aaron Bummer (15:1 SB:CS) and Dylan Cease at 11 SB allowed with just 2 CS.

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.

Noelvi Marte – SS – Cincinnati (21st on Hittertron this week – $0.7 SB$)

The $0.7 SB$ at least beat the $0.2 that Nolan Schanuel was predicted to score last week!

Marte ($7.7 overall) comes in as the 21st SS on Hittertron for the week, nestled between a multi-eligible Tommy Edman ($8.5) and an equally versatile Luis Rengifo ($6.9 – another Noice!).

Those thinking that Marte might be a fade just because of the lack of playing time and versatility might be in for a bit of a disappointment. 

Marte was the headliner in the Luis Castillo trade last July. He immediately became yet another gem in an already strong minor league system.

The peak tool grades all come out at 50+ as far as hitting, fielding, raw power, and game power are concerned. Ironically, for our purposes, Marte’s speed score sits the lowest of them all at a 40-grade. I guess no one told him, though, as Noelvi managed to swipe 18 bases in 89 minor league games this year. 

In his nine MLB games, Marte has stolen 4 bases and started each game … at 3B. If your league uses a 10 game minimum, he’ll add this to his SS eligibility this week. That not only checks the ‘playing time’ box in our checklist, but it also adds another position to his resume. 

But wait, there’s more. If you (like me) were none too happy to see the news that Matt McLain landed on the IL right after the lineup lock on Monday, you’re not alone. The silver lining of that nasty cloud is that, despite hitting just .207 in his first 9 games, Noelvi Marte could see some time at 2B. The easy guess is he fills in for the Reds’ injured breakout second baseman. 

Noelvi Marte with the go-ahead RBI, and the Reds lead in Arizona!

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— Bally Sports Cincinnati (@BallySportsCIN) August 27, 2023

As I said, increased playing time and versatility are two big reasons why Marte warrants a pickup in any league. I managed to scoop him on Sunday for $24 (out of $1000) in our TGFBI league (runner up bid was $16). That should help soften the Bo Bichette quad injury and IL placement in the short term.

Is Noelvi Marte going to paint the town Red? If we’re going with his current production, I’d agree that maybe that’s unlikely. But I’m taking a chance on the top prospect with big time tools, increased opportunity, and the ability to move around the infield (and my lineup). 

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!