Happy Wednesday, Razzball friends! I hope the first part of your week has gone great and you’re ready for another exciting (or kind of decent) reading session of SAGNOF with Marmossdad!
Ok. I guess I can can (stuttery) the double S (esses?). Being a bit of an English teacher certainly has its benefits and drawbacks, and the Jasson Dominguez spelling is certainly one of those sticking points in my often over-stimulated and never-resting brain.
Before we get down to why you should be “Chasin’ Jasson”, I have a bit of a confession to make. When Dominguez got the call, I thought we had the third head of a three-headed outfield beast in New York. Two giants in Giancarlo Stanton (6’6”, 245 lbs) and Aaron Judge (6’7”, 282 lbs) were about to welcome a third cave troll into the fold.
I quickly looked for comparisons for Jasson Dominguez. Cliches be damned.
Light-tower power? 65-grade raw! Blazing speed? 60-grade wheels! Immaculate glove? 50-grade fielding (future)!
All this from a big-man? Sounds like Bo Jackson or Dave Winfield in their prime to me.
Then I saw that FanGraphs has Dominguez listed at 5’10” and 190 lbs. Even more discouraging, Baseball Reference has him down for 5’9”.
Now 5’9” isn’t exactly your everyday Altuve, but I was pretty far off when I assumed the next big thing in New York was…well, anything but big.
The good news? No matter the measure of this kid, he’s proven throughout the minor leagues that he can produce some pretty healthy counting stats.
In 2021, between the Florida Complex league and A ball, Dominguez had 5 HR and 9 SB over 56 GP (age 18).
In 2022, he played across three levels (A/A+/AA) and finished with a total of 16 HR and 37 SB in 530 AB. More than half of those AB came at that first A ball level.
This year, Dominguez played in 109 games at AA (507 AB) and powered out 15 HR with an identical 37 SB. A cup of coffee in AAA (just 9 games) was enough of a springboard for the centerfielder to bounce Harrison Bader right out of the Bronx.
Mike Couillard had a good profile in his FAAB article from Sunday that highlighted a couple of big numbers from Dominguez’s minor league lines that stand out. The good news is his walk rate throughout his entire minor league career was never lower than 12.5% (which is ‘great’ according to FanGraphs assessment of BB%). The not-so-good news is his K% in AA this year was a less than stellar 25.6%.
Mike also made mention of the Steamer line and added that a .230 average is probably a good benchmark for him to try to stay above over a full season of at-bats.
With the Yankees finally giving the youth movement a bit of a look, it’s nice to see guys like Dominguez, Everson Pereira, Austin Wells, and the always (at least in my brain) confusing tandem of Oswaldo and Oswald getting some playing time.
And if you ask the Yankee faithful, they’re all for giving “The Martian” as much time as he wants.
Jasson Domínguez really did the E.T. phone home for his Yankee Stadium roll call
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) September 5, 2023
E.T. Phone Home, indeed.
If the month long audition for Jasson Dominguez works out, we very well could be looking at the starting CF for the Yankees in April 2024. If he shows he can hit MLB pitching and keep the strikeouts in check, not only can he help your roto squads the rest of the way, but we could have ourselves a nice sleeper with the potential to hit double digit home runs and steal 20-30 bases next year.
Speaking of guys with steals potential, how about those league leaders?
| NAME | TEAM | STOLEN BASES | CAUGHT STEALING | ON-BASE PERCENTAGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ronald Acuna Jr. | Braves | 63 | 11 | .404 |
| Esteury Ruiz | Athletics | 56 | 9 | .304 |
| Corbin Carroll | Diamondbacks | 41 | 5 | .361 |
| Bobby Witt Jr. | Royals | 39 | 10 | .314 |
| CJ Abrams | Nationals | 38 | 3 | .294 |
| Nico Hoerner | Cubs | 36 | 6 | .339 |
| Julio Rodriguez | Mariners | 36 | 9 | .342 |
| Ha-Seong Kim | Padres | 31 | 8 | .365 |
| Wander Franco | Rays | 30 | 10 | .344 |
| Willi Castro | Twins | 29 | 4 | .328 |
- It’s been noted for a while here in this space, but it’s now pretty obvious, that we have a two horse race. Ruiz didn’t start on Monday night against the Blue Jays, but pinch ran in the 9th inning for Brent Rooker…and promptly stole two bases.
- Corbin Carroll continues to quell concerns about his injured shoulder. He’s got multi-hit games in five of his last 10, and could even challenge for a 25-30 homer, 50 steal year.
- Bobby Witt Jr. continues to rake, too. He’s pushed his OBP up to .314 and is making those that took him with a top 10 pick look like they were right about their predictions.
- When he missed almost 10 games with a hamstring injury in May, it was easy to assume that Nico Hoerner’s steals production would definitely suffer. It…did not. He’s stolen 11 bags since August 1st including two in his last four games.
I decided to change it up a bit again this week as I’m sure there are a few of you who are looking to maximize your Head-to-Head lineups for your playoff run.
Below is some quick hit information from our Razzball Rest of Season player rater sorted by SB$. Remember! This is a free tool for you to use, but I’ll add a couple of tidbits from the Hittertron for some of the players as well.
Don’t forget Hittertron is available (along with Streamonator, Relievonator, and all of the DFS goodies) with a subscription to Rudy’s tools here.
- First things first, Ronald Acuna is our top dog for the rest of the season…because of course he is. His $20.2 SB$ is way above Bobby Witt Jr.’s $12.2 SB$, which shows up in the second spot.
- Acuna is also the tops on our next 7-days Hittertron with a whopping $65.2 value (ahead of a $38.9 Austin Riley).
- At risk of re-listing everyone from our chart above, both Corbin Carroll and CJ Abrams have 11.9 SB$ for the rest of the season.
- Julio Rodriguez ($1.4 SB$) ranks 10th on the 7-day hittertron, just above Carroll’s prediction for the week.
- A rejuvenated Cody Bellinger is 31st overall for the rest of the season player rater, but the Hittertron really likes his upcoming games against San Francisco, Arizona, and at Colorado. That sweet Rockie air has him boosted in his 13th overall ranking for the next 7 days.
- Finally, just a bunch of names that slot in at $1.2 or $1.1 in or around 10th place on that 7-day rater for steals. These are guys you may want to stream in if you need to balance your H2H lineup against a steals heavy opponent…Randy Arozarena, Tommy Edman, Maikel Garcia, Michael Harris II, Anthony Volpe, Josh Lowe, Andres Gimenez.
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!
