With the season starting to reach its apex, we care less and less about full category contributions and shift our immediate focus even more to category studs. One such potential “stud” in the stolen base category is Bubba Thompson. Thompson has three steals in his first five MLB games and has played every day since his call-up. He swiped 49 bases in AAA this season and could perform Berti-esque down the stretch. He is an offensive liability but the speed is unquestioned and for those managers who could use the bags, he should be a priority add.
Jon Berti – Speaking of Berti he did begin a rehab assignment and stole a base already. He should be back this week so add him where he may have been dropped.
Nick Gordon – Gordon appears to have taken over as a regular for the Twins and is making the most of the opportunity. The bat has improved significantly and he has two steals across the last two weeks. He may already be owned in deeper leagues but shallow leaguers should check their wires.
Geraldo Perdomo – I was in on Perdomo early on in the season and he performed poorly across the board. However, he has two homers and two steals in the last 14 days and his wRC+ is slightly above average. While he may not be a game changer now he is a name to remember for fantasy drafts next season.
| Name | Team | SB | CS | CS% | Inn | SB/Inn |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jacob Stallings | MIA | 45 | 9 | 16.7% | 651.2 | 0.07 |
| Jonah Heim | TEX | 44 | 7 | 13.7% | 637.1 | 0.07 |
| Keibert Ruiz | WSN | 41 | 19 | 31.7% | 701.1 | 0.06 |
| Christian Vazquez | – – – | 40 | 16 | 28.6% | 669.1 | 0.06 |
| Austin Nola | SDP | 39 | 5 | 11.4% | 558.1 | 0.07 |
| Cal Raleigh | SEA | 39 | 17 | 30.4% | 635 | 0.06 |
| Tucker Barnhart | DET | 36 | 16 | 30.8% | 555 | 0.06 |
| Austin Hedges | CLE | 36 | 10 | 21.7% | 560.2 | 0.06 |
| Tomas Nido | NYM | 35 | 10 | 22.2% | 570.1 | 0.06 |
| Max Stassi | LAA | 34 | 9 | 20.9% | 590.1 | 0.06 |
| Elias Diaz | COL | 33 | 11 | 25.0% | 609.1 | 0.05 |
| Travis d’Arnaud | ATL | 32 | 11 | 25.6% | 600.1 | 0.05 |
| Will Smith | LAD | 32 | 7 | 17.9% | 649.2 | 0.05 |
| Sean Murphy | OAK | 30 | 13 | 30.2% | 717.2 | 0.04 |
| J.T. Realmuto | PHI | 29 | 18 | 38.3% | 769.1 | 0.04 |
| Ryan Jeffers | MIN | 29 | 6 | 17.1% | 460.1 | 0.06 |
| Omar Narvaez | MIL | 27 | 8 | 22.9% | 484.2 | 0.06 |
| Joey Bart | SFG | 27 | 9 | 25.0% | 457.2 | 0.06 |
| Martin Maldonado | HOU | 25 | 8 | 24.2% | 688.2 | 0.04 |
| Willson Contreras | CHC | 23 | 9 | 28.1% | 484.1 | 0.05 |
The catchers to target seem to be fairly stable once again at this point in the season with very few of the names at the top really changing much. Teams are still super aggressive on Jonah Heim and Jacob Stallings and have seen good success rates against these same players. On the flip side, teams have been aggressive on Cal Raleigh, Keibert Ruiz, and Christian Vazquez but with much less success. I wonder if there is a reason these same catchers are heavily targeted but that may be a future article.
One name I left off the good success rates list is Austin Nola. Nola is splitting catching duties down the middle with Jorge Alfaro who has about a 20% CS-rate which is somewhat middle of the pack. This makes it somewhat hard to attack the Padres for stolen base needs. Next week they will get the Marlins and Nationals. The Marlins could see Jon Berti return making him a great play. The Nationals have Victor Robles who is likey not on many wires but could be in shallow leagues.
