SAGNOF: Bossman Sal My Thunder

The final month of the season is upon us, and we’re back with a couple brief stolen base SAGNOF thoughts and, of course, our Speed Dials on this Tuesday. Not much excitement thus far

A pretty uneventful September call-up date was headlined by Sal Stewart getting the call for the Reds, and he hit 6th on Monday, going 1 for 3 with a run scored. Grey already covered him yesterday, however, so I’ll touch real quick on the stolen base potential. He stole 17 this year in the minors in just shy of 500 plate appearances, being caught just three times. That’s more than he ran in his other two minor league seasons. He’s a big boy at 6’1″ and 224 pounds, so I would say his future running potential is limited.

If you need a pickup, I’d rather look at Nick Yorke, who was called up with the Pirates, or maybe even roster Luisangel Acuna.

Here’s the current Stolen Base Leader Board through Sunday, August 31st

The Speed Dials

We went 2 for 3 this week with one DNP in the mix. Also picked up another HR on one of the selections. This puts us at 14 for 49 on the season. What could your SB point total look like with 14 more bags on the books?

Remember, these are specific stolen base streaming targets for specific days where the player is owned in less than 50% of ESPN leagues. All stats represent both the 2024 and 2025 seasons combined.

Diamondbacks vs Rangers – Tuesday, September 2nd

Jake McCarthy – He is playing against all right handed starters, but hasn’t run much this season in his limited action. I like this match-up for him against Jack Leiter. McCarthy is a perfect 6 for 6 this season, and his sprint speed is at 29.7 Ft/Sec, good for 13th in MLB. Dude just needs to get on base and then go. Leiter allows 94.4% of runners to succeed and has a .108 SB/IP ratio. Kyle Higashioka is the second worse catcher in MLB at cutting down runners, and Jonah Heim is in the bottom third, so if he gets on, I see him turning it loose.

Guardians vs Red Sox – Wednesday, September 3rd

Brayan Rocchio – A weak day for SB targets here. Rocchio isn’t fast at 27.0 Ft/Sec, and it shows in his 16 for 26 in stolen bases the last two seasons. He faces Dustin May, who doesn’t hold runners well, however, and has a .147 SB/IP ratio. Carlos Narvaez, however, is #2 at cutting down runners in MLB the past two seasons, so I’m likely only working this angle if Connor Wong is behind the plate.

Pirates vs Dodgers – Thursday, September 4th 

Nick Yorke – Another tough day of pitchers to target. I’ll go after Blake Snell here and hope his control isn’t pinpoint. Yorke, as mentioned above, just got called up and should be in the lineup against the lefty. Yorke is 17 for 23 stealing bases this season in the minors. Snell is decent at holding runners, however, with only a .106 SB/IP ratio and 71.4% success rate against. Will Smith is also in the top ten of cutting down runners, so like I said, another tough day for a Speed Dial.

Phillies vs Marlins – Friday, September 5th

Harrison Bader – Finally, a good pitcher to run against in Edward Cabrera, who has a .227 SB/IP ratio and 85% success rate against. (Author’s Edit – Cabrera got placed in IL Monday, but I am sticking with Bader as the target) Bader is playing most days, and while his SB numbers are down with only ten this season, he still runs well at 28.8 Ft/Sec. Plus, it doesn’t matter who catches for the Marlins, all of them are near the bottom of the throwing leaderboard, with Agustin Ramirez being dead last.

That’s all, folks. Any other questions, hit me up here or on Twitter @TheGreatKnoche