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SAGNOF: Adolis Garcia-Later! It’s Evan Heaven In Texas

September 13, 2023 | 2023 Fantasy Baseball, SAGNOF, Steals |

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Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! Welcome back for another Wednesday special with some MarmosDad SAGNOF.

We’re officially 20 days out from the last day of the season, so to say it’s crunch time is probably an understatement. For those of you (and me!) who are still in the thick of a race, congratulations on the effort and time that it’s taken to get through the grind! For those that are well out of the running for the league title, but still are reading up on rest of the season information because you’re not quite into the football side of things (also me), we’re here for you too.

And to spin a not-so-perfect segway, last week the Texas Rangers were forced to send out a panic call when Razzball’s favorite underrated outfielder went down with a right patellar tendon strain. 

I mean, to go from this on September 3rd…

To this just three days later…

Hyperbole aside, talk about going from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows.

But back to that segway…In the thinnest of silver linings, (and the weakest segway ever), a Rangers top prospect has also shown that he’s here for the big league club. 21 year old Evan Carter, MLB’s #8 prospect, had quite the minor league resume before his promotion on Friday.

The kid that sounds more like the lead singer of a boy band than a 5-tool outfield prospect scores some pretty healthy scouting grades according to MLB.com.  His hit tool and speed are the carrying cards with both coming in at a 60-grade rating. Overall, he rates out at a 60, even with the 55-grade fielding score and the 50 power/arm assessments.

These scouting grades are much more generous than those at Fangraphs, where Carter’s speed is still a 60-grade but everything else is a bit more suppressed (50 future overall grade there).

With fewer than 250 games under his belt, (246 GP), and a healthy nudge after their all-star outfielder went down with an injury, the Rangers decided it was time for the kid to shine. But can he be a steals darling for those of us who want to boost a category for the stretch run?

Carter began his minor league career in 2021 at A ball and stole 12 bases in just 32 games. Well, that officially has my attention. The 2 HR and a 23.3% BB rate over that short sample size are pretty impressive, too.

In 2022, Texas started Carter at A+ for 100 games before having him finish up for a 6 game stint at AA. Overall last year, he hit 12 homers and stole  28 bases in 475 plate appearances. 

This year? The 6’2” 190 lb. kid continued his upward trajectory. After starting the year with three games at the Florida Complex League, Carter settled in at AA where it was much of the same as far as statistics were concerned. In 482 plate appearances, he managed to power out 12 home runs and steal 22 bases. A quick dip of the toes in AAA, (8 games and 3 more SB), and that unfortunate injury to Adolis meant that it was time for the call.

But would Evan Carter be successful right out of the gate?

Um…Ok. But what about the defense?

I don’t know what was better here. The throw? The ‘meh’ reaction by Dane Dunning? Or the “What? Wow!” from George Springer.

The Rangers have said that they’re hopeful that Adolis will be healthy and ready to come back when his 10 day IL stint is up on September 18th. The chatter about the impending return of Josh Jung is also something for the Texas faithful to get excited about. But if they can get two all-stars back before the playoffs AND get games like this out of their top prospect at the MLB level, they might be able to secure one of those wild card spots and make some noise in the postseason.

 

Now, if you’ve taken note of the dates I’ve mentioned here and thought, “I thought this guy just said there’s only 20 days left before October 1st. Why would I be excited for a ‘maybe’ IL activation from Adolis in my redraft league?”, don’t think I didn’t notice.

Since we’re almost through the regular season and many of you are probably in the thick of your H2H playoffs already this week, I decided to do just a quick peek at stolen base sources that you might have overlooked or not realized were producing at the moment.

Grey has mentioned it a few times over the past couple of weeks, but I think it bears repeating. If you are holding on to that star player that you drafted in the first 5 rounds and waiting for him to return from an injury, now is the time to seriously consider cutting bait. This time of year is not about who is supposed to be good. This is about who is playing well right now. 

Did I drop Adolis in my TGFBI league? No. And that’s probably the wrong call. But if you’re within striking distance of a title and  you have some of these players taking up roster space in your redraft league, I’d consider changing it up over the next couple of FAAB runs to get some guys in that are (a) getting the playing time and (b) riding a hot streak.

Checking in on the 7-day player rater, there is no one hotter than Matt Olson right now (and my team in the Perts league is very thankful for that).

Unfortunately, Matt Olson isn’t helping any of us with stolen bases.

Who is? Here’s a quick reference chart of the top SB guys on our 7-day player rater just in case you want to stream a few names.

NAME TEAM POSITION ROTO $ SB (LAST 7)
Corbin Carroll Diamondbacks OF 17.7 6
Ha-Seong Kim Padres 2B/SS/3B 12.6 4
CJ Abrams Nationals 2B/SS 29.6 3
Jacob Young Cubs OF 13.1 3
Andres Gimenez Guardians 2B 12.2 3
Brice Turang Brewers 2B/SS 8.6 3
Bryson Stott Phillies 2B/SS 8.2 3

WHAT?! A stolen base list without the kings of the castle? Yep, it’s SAGNOF blasphemy here, kids. There really is no Ronald Acuna or Esteury Ruiz here, (although both just missed the cut with two steals apiece).

There are a few names here that don’t often show up on our season leaderboard. 

  • Grey pointed out Jacob Young yesterday in his notes and mentioned that he’s a good SAGNOF play. Add that to the fact that the Cubs play 3 games in Colorado this week and guys like him, Christopher Morel, Nico Hoerner, and Cody Bellinger are pretty good choices to plug and play for the next few.
  • Brice Turang has been getting a good run of starts in Milwaukee. He ended his 21 consecutive games streak on Monday when the Brewers faced Jesus Luzardo, and should continue to get more at-bats than Andruw Monasterio.
  • Bryson Stott is another one that flew under the radar in most draft rooms back in April. Anyone who tells you they predicted a 15 HR, 28 SB season with a triple slash line of .288/.335/.436 in 532 AB is crazier than the Phillie Phanatic.

And to finish us out here, I put together another quick hit list of names that I looked at late this weekend for some of the SB production that doesn’t usually show up in our regular charts. Over the last 15 days, these guys have been among the stolen base leaders…

Randy Arozarena (7 SB), Tommy Edman (7), Nolan Jones (5), Kerry Carpenter (4), Dylan Moore (4), Akil Baddoo (3), Ronny Mauricio (3).

Some other names to look in on that are back from injury, getting more playing time, or could provide some speed for your squads…Oswald Peraza, Leody Taveras, Willi Castro, Maikel Garcia, Brandon Marsh, and Christopher Morel.

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

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