SAGNOF: Week 26 – The Night Is Not Young

Happy mid-week, Razzball ruffians! It’s your favorite roto-Dad back for our final regular season write-up (ahead of next week’s look to 2024). Now that we’re officially well into Week 26, the season is definitely winding down, and the night is certainly not young.

When I thought of players to write up for our final profile here in the Land of SAGNOF, I figured what would be more fitting than going with someone that truly epitomizes the term, “Steals Ain’t Got No Face”. I mean, we here at MarmosDad HQ have taken quite a bit of liberty with the term this season by profiling a lot of guys with speed skills, but also those who are contributors in other areas as well.

So who is our Billy Hamilton? Our Esix Snead? (Side note: I honestly had no idea that Snead had as few ABs in the bigs as he did – 13 AB with 4 SB in his career).

I mean, even Milt Cuyler had 10 homers in 1338 career at-bats to go with his 77 SB – propped up by that magical season of 41 in 1991 with the Tigers.

Who gives us a good snapshot of one that possesses a blazing speed profile with power that would struggle to break through a wet paper bag with a fully powered chainsaw?

Guys and five gals? I give you Jacob Young.

Jacob Young’s first major league hit! pic.twitter.com/KBxb60BBAy

— Milb Central (@milb_central) August 30, 2023

This first MLB hit could not be a better example of what we’ve got here.

Before we get into the nitty and gritty of the 24 year old Nationals outfielder, it should be said that I went back and forth checking this name about 5 times before I came to the realization that he’s a different player than the Cubs Jared Young. Needless to say, household names these two are not.

Jacob Young, the 203rd pick (7th round) of the 2021 draft certainly did not take his time in moving up the ranks of professional baseball.

In his 2021 debut, Young played 26 games at A ball where he stole 13 bases in 114 plate appearances. The 8.8 BB% was pretty decent for a rookie, and the 14.9 K% was definitely solid for a kid just getting his feet wet after draft day. That’s the good news.

The .208/.283/.267 triple slash line? Uh…two things stand out there. When the OBP is higher than the SLG, and none of those three numbers even sniff the .300 level, he’d better have a plus plus skill somewhere. 

Well, hello 70-grade speed! And hello classic SAGNOF profile.

2022 started out with an assignment at A ball once again, where Young played in 115 games and put up some eye-popping counting stats in 542 plate appearances. The 2 HR feel like a blind squirrel/nut type production, but the 118 runs scored (!) and 52 SB certainly turned more than a few heads in the Washington system. The 10.9 BB% and 15.1 K% signaled a bit of growth, or at least solidifying some plate discipline too. He even improved the triple slash to .262/.360/.331.

2023 was the blastoff. A+ was the first stop where the speedy OF once again hit 2 HR (in 56 GP), and stole 22 bases in 248 PA. He held that decent BB% (10.1) and managed to improve the strikeout rate (12.5%). After 56 games at AA and AAA, and another 3 HR, 17 SB, it was time to bring the kid to Washington.

So far, Young has 82 plate appearances, 7 SB (0 CS), and is slashing a respectable .250/.316/.361. The good news is he’s getting everyday playing time. The ok news? He’s hitting leadoff…when CJ Abrams isn’t in the lineup. The bad news is Young is batting 9th on most nights as the Nats aren’t resting their breakout shortstop if they can help it.

In true SAGNOF form, this is ONLY a play if you somehow need a steals only bat in a very deep (or NL only) league. I mean, what do you expect me to write up here after already profiling names like Xavier Edwards, Masyn Winn, Jordan Lawlar, Forrest Wall, etc. 

We’re running out of guys with steals potential!

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

• The battle for 2023 Stolen Base King has been a two man race for a while. Between Ronald Acuna’s minor tweaks (calf, elbow) and Esteury Ruiz’s shoulder injury, there wasn’t an opportunity for one guy to blow the other right out of the water. It should be Acuna’s crown by the end of the year, especially if Ruiz continues to get rested like he has over the last few weeks.
• Bobby Witt Jr. and Corbin Carroll in the race for bronze should be a fun one to watch, too. Both are beefing up their first round ADP resumes for 2024 and could be top 10 selections overall if they can show up healthy to spring training.
• I mentioned it before, but it’s worth a revisit. I don’t know which breakout is more of a welcome sight. CJ Abrams’ or Ha-Seong Kim’s. Both aren’t necessarily surprises, but if you would have taken bets on both of these guys surpassing 40 SB on the year way back in March, I think some people would have given you a pretty hard side-eye and shook their heads. For the record, we’re talking about an ADP of 240.21 for Abrams and a 254.68 for Kim from the spring (NFBC).
• I swear I don’t have any anti-Cubs biases, and I come by my NL ignorance honestly (I’ve been in the same AL only pool since its inception in 1991). But I honestly didn’t understand the hype around Nico Hoerner last year. 10 HR, 20 SB, .281 AVG in 2022? Meh. Well, he certainly proved me wrong. 41 SB with the chance to break 45 on the year is certainly something to pay attention to, and I assume he’ll push up draft boards next spring as well.
• Yet another one I mentioned a couple of times this year was Willi Castro. I picked him up in mid-May as a hot bat for the then injured Manny Machado in TGFBI. Not bad! I figured plugging him in for a couple of weeks would net me some decent average and a few SBs. Then, when Machado returned, the inevitable roster crunch came and I ‘Free’d Willi’ back to the FA pool…and he went on to steal 30+ bags. Ouch.
• As tempting as it is to mention the numbers from our second to last spot on the chart, I’m glad that at least sticking with Andres Gimenez has paid off. I managed to pick that guy up everywhere in the hopes that he’d put up at least a 20/20 season with a decent batting average (because some of us still play in those ancient roto-leagues). 13 HR and 30 SB? Ya, that’ll do.

That’s all, Razzfolks! Only one more week to go! Join me next week as I attempt to (and undoubtedly fail to) focus on recapping some great picks in SBs this year and take a peek towards the 2024 SAGNOF landscape. Until then, 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!