Happy Wednesday, Razzball faithful! Are you ready for another (moderately) exciting episode of SAGNOF with MarmosDad?! I’ll just assume you shouted, or muttered in a not-so-disgruntled manner, “YES!!!” and we can move on…
Our lede this week shouldn’t be much of a surprise as he’s taken the league by storm with his accumulated counting stats. I drafted Ronald Acuna Jr. in the Perts league with the 2nd overall pick this spring mostly because I had zero shares elsewhere and had already had a chance to take Shohei Ohtani as my first overall in Razzslam. Taking Acuna over Ohtani in a daily moves league like that seems like an obvious gaffe, but I really did believe in the potential for the Braves OF to put up some pretty healthy numbers. Missing out on Ohtani’s double eligibility in that daily moves league? Acuna Matata! Hopefully, that means no worries for 4 categories worth of counting stats (and batting average too, if we’re lucky).
Well, so far so good. Acuna comes in on the Hittertron as the top player of the week at a whopping $51.4. To give us a bit of perspective, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is second at $42.8 followed by B-Don’s favorite (hashtag sarcasm), Bo Bichette at $37.5. What’s the main thing that separates these three in the weekly prediction/rankings? Well, it’s that sweet nectar of the stolen base gods, of course!
Sorting by SB$, Acuna is ahead of everyone at $2.2 for the week. He’s even in front of the pure burners like Esteury Ruiz and Jon Berti. 13 SB (15 attempts) is enough to plant him firmly atop the SB leaderboard. The 26 R, 5 HR, 15 RBI, and .363 AVG point to a pretty healthy return after some injury trouble last year.
Acuna did get drilled in the shoulder by a 93.4 MPH fastball from Tylor Megill in the first inning on Monday night, but imaging results confirmed there was no fracture so Acuna owners can breathe a sigh of relief.
I do know that if you want to try to swing a deal for the Atlanta superstar, it’ll take a pretty hefty package in most leagues. But if you want to secure the hitter that could end up atop the player rater by the end of the season, this should be your top target in both redraft and keeper leagues.
Speaking of steals…and of course we are…here are the team leaders up to, but not including, Tuesday night’s games…
| TEAM | GAMES PLAYED | AT-BATS | STOLEN BASES | CAUGHT STEALING |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pirates | 29 | 971 | 41 | 9 |
| Guardians | 29 | 979 | 35 | 7 |
| Orioles | 28 | 929 | 30 | 5 |
| Athletics | 29 | 969 | 29 | 6 |
| Marlins | 29 | 954 | 27 | 4 |
| Cubs | 28 | 971 | 26 | 10 |
| Mets | 29 | 954 | 26 | 3 |
| Diamondbacks | 29 | 978 | 25 | 5 |
| Rays | 29 | 1002 | 25 | 9 |
| Yankees | 30 | 967 | 23 | 8 |
A quick check in on some of the teams from our chart…
Pittsburgh Pirates
(The mancrush is real for Ji Hwan Bae)
- It’s probably getting a bit out of hand, but my appreciation for Ji-Hwan Bae is reaching some pretty lofty heights. He’s up to 11 SB on the year, the average is up to a respectable .250, and the OBP is at .302. As if it needs to get any better, he just qualified for 2B in those leagues with a 10 game in-season threshold for eligibility (NFBC).
- Behind Bae, the rest of the Pirates are certainly running. And for once, especially if you ask Bryan Reynolds, they’re not running out of town. Both Reynolds and Jack Suwinski have 5 SB, Andrew McCutchen has 4, and both Ke’Bryan Hayes and Carlos Santana (!) have 2 SB each. Strange times in Pennsylvania, indeed!
Atlanta Braves
- Ronald Acuna kind of slants the team SB total on his own with 13 SB and 2 CS.
- Sam Hilliard has 4 SB on the year and the now healthy Michael Harris II had 2 SB in early April before injuring his back.
- There’s only one more player with a stolen base on the Braves. I can tell you with 100% certainty that I wouldn’t have guessed who it was in 10 tries, nor would I have guessed that he’s played 17 games this year for them too! If you want to take a guess who it is without the magic cheat sheet that is ‘the Google’, drop your pick in the comments below.
Tampa Bay Rays
- Speaking of injuries, Wander Franco looks like he’s fully back from his 2022 quad and wrist ailments. My staff pick for ‘comeback player’ of 2023 leads the Rays with 6 SB and has a .300/.364/.545 line. The 17 R, 5 HR, 17 RBI are pretty great counting stats, too.
- Josh Lowe (written up last week), and Taylor Walls both follow Franco with 5 steals apiece. Manuel Margot has 4 and Randy Arozarena has 3.
For the profiles this week, I’ll reference the Hittertron SB$ values for our best plays (May 1 – May 7).
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.
Jon Berti – MIA – 2B/SS/3B
Berti and his Marlins line up against Atlanta at home and the Cubs on the road. Last year’s SB king (41 SB) is off to a hot start and comes in as the third best speed option for the week according to the hittertron at 1.7 SB$.
The multi-eligible Berti will look to run against two pretty different catchers. Atlanta should be starting Sean Murphy, and Berti might want to take advantage. Murphy has caught just 3 of 17 runners so far this year for a close to NL worst .176 CS%.
The Cubs series might play out a bit differently, though, as Yan Gomes has caught 4 of 11 potential base stealers (.363 CS%).
The good news? As long as Berti is getting that sweet playing time, and leading off against lefties, he should be able to put that 97th percentile speed score to the test. The bad news? Joey Wendle is due back this week and Berti hasn’t stolen a base in his last 10 games.
Starling Marte – NYM – OF
Marte was one of the few burners that I missed in my preseason profiles and coverage. He slots in as the fourth best option behind Berti on Hittertron this week at 1.6 SB$. Marte just finished up a series with the Braves Monday night (1 SB in the doubleheader), and started a series at Detroit Tuesday night. The Mets finish up with a weekend series at home against the Rockies.
The corner outfielder makes our leaderboard (below) and should be able to take advantage of a less than impressive Eric Haase (.200 CS%) and Jake Rogers (.125 CS%).
If you want to roll him out against Detroit, hope for some SB spikes there because that may dry up in the Colorado series.
For qualified catchers in the NL, Colorado catcher Elias Diaz ranks third best with a .429 CS%.
Julio Rodriguez – SEA – OF
I went with Julio Rodriguez as our final profile today, partially because I saw him steal a bag when we were in Toronto last Friday (and if you haven’t seen the Blue Jays new stadium features, you can see a couple of photos on my Twitter feed).
Julio gave Mariner fans a scare when he was removed during Saturday’s game with back tightness. He was due back last night, though, so just double check his availability before playing him today.
The Seattle OF slides in at the 11 spot on Hittertron this week, and it’s not tough to see why. The 60-grade speed is a given, and the 1.3 SB$ on the week seems pretty modest given the opponents.
Seattle finishes up a series at Oakland in the early part of our week, and the A’s primary backstop, Shea Langeliers, has caught just 8 of 35 base stealers (.229 CS%).
Similar to Marte above though, Julio might run into trouble … uh, literally … when the M’s host Houston on the weekend. Martin Maldonado ranks second behind Connor Wong in CS% in the AL, so Rodriguez might be in tough at the end of the week.
Before I leave, as always here’s our top 10 SB leaders (individual and, again, as of Tuesday afternoon). I’ll try to keep the chart handy for you each week just to use as a reference point if you find that it helps.
| NAME | TEAM | STOLEN BASES | CAUGHT STEALING | ON-BASE PERCENTAGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ronald Acuna Jr. | Braves | 13 | 2 | .450 |
| Ji Hwan Bae | Pirates | 11 | 1 | .302 |
| Jazz Chisholm Jr. | Marlins | 11 | 1 | .298 |
| Cedric Mullins | Orioles | 11 | 0 | .365 |
| Esteury Ruiz | Athletics | 11 | 1 | .336 |
| Corbin Carroll | Diamondbacks | 10 | 2 | .374 |
| Nico Hoerner | Cubs | 10 | 2 | .361 |
| Jorge Mateo | Orioles | 10 | 1 | .395 |
| Starling Marte | Mets | 9 | 3 | .314 |
| Thairo Estrada | Giants | 8 | 1 | .379 |
That’s all, Razz-folks! 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!
