SAGNOF : Ill Kim-munication

Happy Wednesday, Razzball nation! I hope things are good wherever you’re at as we trudge through these dog days of summer.

Ha-Seong Kim is the focus of our introduction today and for good reason. Heading into the 2023 season, Kim wasn’t expected to play much of a full-time role with the Padres. It looked like his best opportunity for playing time was going to be for the first month of the season, thanks to Fernando Tatis’ suspension that was set to finish up at the end of April. After that, Kim could go back to filling in as a bit of a utility infielder who could spell Jake Cronenworth at 2B, Xander Bogaerts at SS, and Manny Machado at 3B. If you’ve paid any attention to the latter two names there over the past few years, you know the pathway for everyday at-bats wasn’t exactly going to be wide open.

So how did Ha-Seong get to where he is today? Ironically enough, after a .209 start through April, the 27 year old who was destined to be a bench bat started hitting on May 1st. And, to borrow a line from the Beastie Boys’ song, ‘Sure Shot’, (from the album, Ill Communication), since then it’s been …

Mr. Ill Kim-munication’s preseason Steamer line was 122 GP, 486 PA, 13 HR, 63 R, 49 RBI, 11 SB, with a .246/.316/.397 triple slash line. Way back in March there were some of us at Razzball HQ that thought the playing time predictions were a bit heavy there. Heck, even our Fantasy Master Lothario had Kim down for less than 400 AB in his preseason outlook.

As of right now, Kim’s blown all of those predictions out of the water. 

106 GP, 422 PA, 15 HR, 62 R, 41 RBI, 24 SB, and a triple slash of .288/.384/.454 (as of Tuesday afternoon) has not only helped Kim stay in the lineup, he’s even been leading off most games. The everyday production made it much easier for the Dads to cut ties with Wil Myers and Eric Hosmer (with Jake Cronenworth shifting over to 1B). With just over two months of baseball to go, we’re well into ‘gravy time’ with Ha-Seong Kim and nothing but profit with that early season predicted roto-value.

And with that kind of triple slash, it’s not that far of a stretch if he ever wants to proclaim, “And I’ve got mad hits like I was Rod Carew”.

Is Ha-Seong Kim a guy that would be available on your waiver wire? Well, he’s rostered in 96% of Fantrax mixed leagues, 86% of Yahoo! Leagues, and 71.8% in ESPN leagues (this ESPN stuff baffles me).

So, in those redraft leagues, you might have to make a trade to secure this breakout middle infielder. In keeper or dynasty leagues, it looks like Kim has shown the ability to be a solid leadoff guy with multi-eligibility. Not a bad hold for 2024, considering many of us thought he would be a utility infielder without the potential for much more.

Speaking of guys with potential over the long haul, it’s been a few weeks since we looked in at the steals leaderboard. Are there any new names or teams cracking our top 10, or is it more business as usual? Let’s have a look.

• The first three names in our list are business as usual for the top spots. The return of Esteury Ruiz (shoulder) should make for a nice race through the rest of the season. Just to add some spice, Ronald Acuna was drilled in the elbow with a 97 MPH sinker last night, too. The bad news is it looks like Acuna might get some rest and give Esteury a chance to make up some ground. The good news? At least the X-rays were negative.
• Corbin Carroll was the biggest increase since we last posted the list. He managed to add 7 SB to his total without being caught once. The OBP held steady at .358, too.
• Bobby Witt Jr. and Wander Franco flip-flopped spots, and I assume they’ll be back and forth here for a while. Both are still stealing a couple of bags a week and, as I mentioned in one of the weekend round-ups, Witt has been steadily building on that OBP through the last few months.
• A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that the Willi Castro doubters may be regretting those early season drops. Picking him up for an injured Machado in TGFBI a month ago was a great move by me, but the subsequent release after Machado’s return was certainly whatever one would qualify as the opposite of great.
• Starling Marte was 6th in our list two weeks ago, but his zero SB attempts over that span has him sliding off the top chart here. 
• We profiled CJ Abrams a few weeks back, and he’s definitely kept on running. He leads the league in thefts over the past 15 days with 8 SB.
• Nico Hoerner having any similarities to Corbin Carroll is obviously a good thing. In this case, he’s another one that hasn’t been caught stealing since the last update. His 5 SB and 0 CS since two weeks ago have him back on track for the race to the top here.
• Our lede, Ha-Seong Kim, had the 2nd highest SB total over the last 15 days with 6.
• Other quick hits for the last 15 days in steals – Kyle Tucker (6), Jose Altuve (5), a rejuvenated Cody Bellinger (5), and TJ Friedl (5).

We’ll finish today with the profile of the week. In these, I’ll usually reference the Hittertron SB$ value here just so you can see what kind of roto-dollars the guy is projected to earn over the next 7 days. 

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.

That being said, this week is a prospect to check in on if your league has a deeper FA pool or if you’re looking to add a potential keeper for next year in your carryover leagues. As such, he’s not on the Hittertron this week.

Masyn Winn – SS – St. Louis Cardinals

As always, there were a few names that I considered for our spot here. Curtis Mead, with his call-up this week, was an obvious one but with just 25 SB in 1048 minor league ABs, I figured he’s not the best profile for a SAGNOF post.

Enter Masyn Winn! 

MLB's No. 41 overall prospect Masyn Winn (@Cardinals) reaches base 5 times for the @memphisredbirds:
4 H
HR
2B
BB
4 R
3 RBI pic.twitter.com/jPZUUdJVHN

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) August 4, 2023

There was a bit of a buzz around the trade deadline when the Cardinals shipped Paul DeJong off to Toronto. The Redbirds in-house options included Tommy Edman or Brendan Donovan, which quickly changed again when Donovan went down with a season ending flexor strain injury in his throwing arm. With two open MLB spots, a lot of Cards fans, and fantasy baseball managers, were pining for a Masyn Winn call-up.

I messaged a buddy who’s been an avid Cards fan for 40+years to ask if he’d heard anything on the broadcasts about Winn’s situation. Unsurprisingly, he said that the hesitation on a call-up seemed to be a service time manipulation thing, but that the big league club should have been planning to make the move in August. 

Excellent! We’re well into August now and calling up your #1 prospect from AAA to take over for Tommy Edman should be a foregone conclusion, right?

I mean, the kid is cruising through Memphis with a triple slash of .284/.355/.467. Over 100 games, Winn has 17 HR, 59 RBI, 92 R, and 17 SB. That 65-grade speed tool is on full display, too, as Winn has only been caught stealing twice.

It seemed like an inevitable MLB debut was in the works…until he went down with a mild glute injury on Sunday. Insert ‘pain in the butt’ joke here.

I did a bit of research through the interwebs and found in more than one story that the Cardinals may, indeed, wait until late August/early September to call up their star infielder, just to preserve his rookie status for 2024.

If you’re in a redraft league, throwing a monocle on Winn’s injury reports might be the best course of action just in case he bounces back quickly and St. Louis does in fact choose to give the kid a look instead of running Edman out there full time. In keepers or dynasty leagues, it’s time to piece together a trade offer if Winn is on one of those top teams making a run for the title, and you’re looking to retool for next year. If his AAA season is any indication, this is one kid that should hit the ground running next spring and could be an early favorite for NL rookie of the year in 2024.

That’s all, Razzfolks! 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!