Ahoy, me Razzball mateys! All aboard the S.S. MarmosDad for a fine afternoon sail through the shimmering waters of Major League Baseball!
I suppose we should pause for a bit of an ‘in memoriam’ of sorts. If anything, the Roger was anything but Jolly in Pittsburgh after Oneil Cruz’s run-in with Seby Zavala last week.
I know that Grey is a big Cruz fan. And he had him everywhere…except for the Perts League. Well, with all of this word-sadness, I’m sure you can guess who has him in that one.
(MarmosDad HQ after the Oneil Cruz injury and the ill-conceived stream of Jhony Brito in the Perts league last week)
But…one man’s broken ankle is another Bae’s opportunity. Right? I guess we should answer that first question, though…Are we sure the Pirates have speed?
Anyone that picked up Ji-Hwan Bae could probably answer that one right now. When I wrote him up a couple of weeks back, I pointed to a few skills and noted that versatility and the ability to field multiple positions might be the best way for him to get at-bats.
Well, he is certainly going to enjoy this increase in playing time. Bae not only was being shuffled back and forth between 2B and OF (sometimes even changing mid-game), but now we should expect him to add SS to that list sooner than later. Not to rehash everything that I wrote in “Can Ji-Hwan Be Your Steals Bae?”, but the contact rates and 60-grade speed should be on display every day now that the Pirates will need him to replace their superstar SS. The .217 average and .298 OBP are rough waters to navigate, indeed, but nothing to abandon ship about just yet. Those counting stats should be a nice consolation if you managed to fix your Cruz troubles with his real-life replacement.
Cool pirate story! But which teams are leading the charge in stolen bases thus far? Well, I’m glad you (kind of) asked!
| TEAM | GAMES PLAYED | AT-BATS | STOLEN BASES | CAUGHT STEALING |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cleveland | 16 | 557 | 25 | 4 |
| Baltimore | 16 | 538 | 24 | 2 |
| NY Mets | 16 | 516 | 20 | 1 |
| Pittsburgh | 17 | 548 | 20 | 3 |
| Chi. Cubs | 14 | 485 | 19 | 5 |
| Arizona | 17 | 554 | 18 | 2 |
| Oakland | 16 | 540 | 18 | 1 |
| NY Yankees | 16 | 519 | 17 | 5 |
| Chi. White Sox | 16 | 570 | 13 | 0 |
| Houston | 17 | 567 | 13 | 2 |
Although we’re still working with some really small sample sizes, things are starting to take shape. Most teams are between the 16-17 game mark so we’re roughly 10% through the season now.
I’ll change up the format a bit today and look a bit more at players from each of some of the more interesting teams in our list above before dipping into a few profiles.
Cleveland
- The Guardians lead the charge here with a slew of guys that are running wild on the basepaths in April. Some of these names we’ve already looked at in the pre-season, and they shouldn’t be all that surprising.
- Myles Straw, from last week’s article, leads the way in Cleveland with 7 SB.
- The next group includes Andres Gimenez (5 SB), Steven Kwan (5), and Jose Ramirez (4). Look for these guys, and MI Amed Rosario (3), to keep getting the green light and enjoy the strong OBP/everyday playing time.
Baltimore
- The Orioles have two of the top burners in the league with Cedric Mullins and Jorge Mateo (8 SB each).
- Adam Frazier has 3 SB, and gives you both 2B/OF eligibility.
- As if you need another reason to go out and get him, Mr. 6 HR 20 RBI Ryan Mountcastle has 2 SB so far, too.
Pittsburgh
- I alluded to it a bit in the lede, but the Pirates sliding into 4th place in our early team list is a bit surprising.
- My Razzslam bid for Bae was a modest $41 (out of $1000). The TGFBI bid was an even more affordable $27 (same $1000 wallet). Needless to say, seeing him surge to the top of the Pirates steals list with 5 SB is whatever ‘music to my ears’ is for my eyeballs.
- There’s a tie for 2nd on the Pirates list of SB with 3. I can say that one of the guys is probably going to be stuck at 3 SB for about four months…sad face…and the other one I was thisclose to writing up as my comeback player in the writer’s predictions article (link below in the Ruiz blurb) before I went with Wander Franco instead. Andrew McCutchen has 3 SB, 3 HR, and a .294 AVG. The storybook reunion kind of writes itself, but if Cutch has anything left in the tank, he’ll have every opportunity to post some good numbers in his return to PNC this summer.
Now for some quick profiles. I’ll try to mix these up this year. Some might be check-ins on guys we’ve looked at already in the pre-season, some may be playing time changes, some might be injury returns or call-ups…
Esteury Ruiz – OAK OF –
The Oakland rookie was a stolen base prospect on a lot of lists heading into spring training. With a 70-grade speed and 86 minor league steals last year, Ruiz was definitely a late round draft target (ADP 290) for many Roto managers.
Through 66 plate appearances this year, Ruiz is certainly making use of his increased playing time in Oakland. The .406 OBP is definitely fantastic, especially when you factor in that his walk rate has been just 4.5%. Much of the OBP magic has been fueled by a pretty impressive 15.2 K%. That’s good enough to help Ruiz post a .321 batting average, and pretty excellent for those of you in traditional rotisserie leagues that still use AVG as a category.
But that river of happiness isn’t all clean, sparkling freshwater. The hard contact, admittedly, has not been great. Ruiz’s statcast page shows him at 15% in hard hit rate, and in the 19th percentile for average exit velocity.
Bottom line, this check in at least gives us some credence in our preseason call for Ruiz to be a good sleeper pick in 2023 Razzball Fantasy Baseball Staff Picks. I’m sure we all can agree that no one expected Ruiz to hit 25 homers in his debut season, but he’s well on his way to putting up a decent OBP/AVG with a healthy stolen base total.
Vaughn Grissom – ATL 2B…soon to add SS –
When Atlanta signed Orlando Arcia to a 3 year deal three weeks ago, the fantasy community let out a collective sigh. Everyone, outside of maybe Arcia’s grandmother, was hoping for the Vaughn Grissom breakout to start right from opening day.
Fast forward to this week, and to Arcia’s micro-fractured wrist, and Grissom’s call up to Atlanta was the 2023 fantasy community’s first case of ‘better late than never’.
The scouting grades don’t jump off the page like they did with Ruiz, but Grissom sits at 50-grade everything. The speed is there, and the power/hit tools are 45/55-grade, respectively.
If you had Arcia, or maybe even Oneil Cruz, you likely already looked in on Grissom as a potential replacement. The 41 game audition in 2022 absolutely quelled any questions whether or not Grissom’s bat was ready for MLB pitching. He managed to hit 5 HR, stole 5 bases, and put up a .291/.353/.440 triple slash line in 156 major league plate appearances.
Two steals in 10 games at AAA this season is, of course, a small sample, but the gate is now wide open for playing time at the major league level. If Grissom can put up similar numbers to what he posted last year, he could be a more than adequate replacement for any of your injured middle infielders.
Anthony Volpe – NYY SS –
I nearly wrote up Zach Neto here, but I think I’ll wait at least another week to get eyes on him a bit more before diving in deeper. After hitting his first career home run Friday night, then burning out a 3 SB game against the Twins on Saturday, Volpe was a natural pivot.
The youngest Yankees player ever to steal 3 bases in a game! @Volpe_Anthony ??
Presented by @Delta pic.twitter.com/7Pci68cAdH
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) April 15, 2023
One quick side note here, all three of Volpe’s SB came off of Christian Vazquez. He’s one that we highlighted last week as a catcher who sat below the 30% CS threshold from 2022, and who we identified as a good target to run on in 2023.
Anyone in New York probably doesn’t need much more Volpe information. Yankee fans have been all about this kid for a while now and after a slower start, things are beginning to click. His weekend surge was enough to get Aaron Boone to move him up to the leadoff spot on Sunday night, too.
The scouting grades, like Grissom, don’t jump off the page. The 55-grade hit tool and 55/60 power scores are above average. The 40-grade speed surprised me, especially because Volpe stole 33 bases in 2021 (A/A+), then followed up with 50 steals in 2022 (AA/AAA).
Let’s not overthink anything here. If the Yankees top prospect has secured everyday playing time, is hitting homers and stealing bases, and finds himself atop one of the most powerful lineups in all of baseball…there are worse guys to target in those shallower leagues.
Before I leave for the week, here are our Top 10 SB leaders (individual). I touched on a lot of the names here already, but 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nico Hoerner | Cubs | 9 | 1 | .394 |
| Jorge Mateo | Orioles | 8 | 1 | .431 |
| Cedric Mullins | Orioles | 8 | 0 | .375 |
| Ronald Acuna Jr. | Braves | 7 | 2 | .463 |
| Starling Marte | Mets | 7 | 2 | .364 |
| Myles Straw | Guardians | 7 | 1 | .443 |
| Anthony Volpe | Yankees | 7 | 0 | .309 |
| Corbin Carroll | Diamondbacks | 6 | 0 | .297 |
| Tim Anderson | White Sox | 5 | 0 | .327 |
| Ji Hwan Bae | Pirates | 5 | 0 | .278 |
That’s all for this week! 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. And good luck with your SAGNOF plays this week!
