The goal of a stat is to maximize it from the jump, and you could plan it that way even further on draft day. There are certain pitchers that have a greater propensity to allow the stolen base, and exploiting that by originally drafting those players on draft day to get a jump on streaming isn’t an awful idea. I used this feature multiple times last year, so a preseason refresher is never a bad thing to prep you for the upcoming season. The one bad theory that works against you when trying to stream is that some of these pitchers are fantasy stalwarts in the starting pitcher department. The biggest name being Noah Syndergaard. Because he is a good deterrent of actual OBPa, the stolen base becomes a risky proposition to try and gamble on with him taking the mound, most likely twice in the first six games. Because in actuality OBPa is a huge thing, because you can’t steal first. Picking on a pitcher isn’t the only way to go about it either as teams with poor catchers could also benefit you for the streaming guessing game. The best thing here is that usually the first three days of the year have truncated schedules so picking and choosing your options could be the jump start you need to dominate a category from day one. Here is a handy chart with last year’s stolen base totals, stolen base opportunities, and OBPa. The three key factors to see who is easy to Winona…
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| Name | SB’s | SB Opps | OBPa |
|---|---|---|---|
| Noah Syndergaard | 48 | 239 | .287 |
| Jimmy Nelson | 30 | 300 | .361 |
| Jon Lester | 28 | 212 | .268 |
| Ubaldo Jimenez | 26 | 230 | .354 |
| Jake Arrieta | 23 | 275 | .277 |
| Cole Hamels | 23 | 296 | .319 |
| Steven Matz | 20 | 180 | .306 |
| Jered Weaver | 20 | 265 | .346 |
| Gerrit Cole | 18 | 187 | .345 |
| James Shields | 18 | 293 | .376 |
| Carlos Rodon | 17 | 261 | .332 |
| Julio Teheran | 17 | 220 | .275 |
- The Mets with Noah and Steven Matz on this list leads me to speculative adds from the Braves and Marlins in the first two series… it makes Brandon Phillips, J.T Realmuto and deeper options like Jace Peterson or even the hit king Ichiro Suzuki.
- The Champs face off against division rivals Cardinals and Brew Crew. Making Kolten Wong very sassy to start the year and Orlando Arcia could fill in nicely in the middle infidel spots.
- While on the other side of Chi-town, the White Sox starters include Shields and Rodon making Tigers and Twins look a bit shinier. Guys I would look at on the Shields and Rodon starts are pretty nice in this game, because they won’t be owned as much as the other teams. Eddie Rosario, whomever wins the Tigers CF spot and even Jose Iglesias are the other ones.
