As I have gone over in the preseason, streaming against a starting pitcher is sometimes a good approach. The problem is that sometimes the blame isn’t completely on the pitcher. This isn’t Looney Tunes and Bugs Bunny isn’t playing all nine positions versus the Gas House Gorillas. So obviously I am referring to the catcher in this scenario. Streaming against a pitcher is all well and good, the bad is that they only pitch once every five days and while it’s fun to rosterbate the high hell out of it, why not take advantage of a starting catcher who usually gets five starts a week? Seems like genius and a better way to try and capitalize on a three game set versus a weak catcher oriented team at gunning down baserunners. So the handy chart below gives us an early glimpse of who we should be taking advantage of with our waiver additions in the steals category. Stay after the chart, because I drop some tidbits of grandeur.
| Name | SB | CS |
|---|---|---|
| Francisco Cervelli | 18 | 1 |
| Stephen Vogt | 10 | 2 |
| Jett Bandy | 9 | 2 |
| Welington Castillo | 9 | 3 |
| Jonathan Lucroy | 9 | 3 |
| Salvador Perez | 9 | 1 |
| J.T. Realmuto | 9 | 3 |
| Willson Contreras | 8 | 3 |
| Yadier Molina | 8 | 5 |
| Derek Norris | 7 | 1 |
| Jason Castro | 6 | 4 |
| Matt Wieters | 6 | 1 |
- Charts are fun, but sometime there are outliers for quantity versus effectiveness. Defensive-minded catchers like Yadier Molina aren’t good options. So don’t take quantity as a ooh type factor.
- Not listed in the chart, because he is more the second catcher, but Evan Gattis is being taken advantage of when he is behind the dish. He has caught 52 innings this year and yielded 8 stolen bases to none caught. Exploit.
- Francisco Cervelli makes Gattis look like Johnny Bench. Giving up 18 steals on the year and the Pirates as a team have three pitchers in the top 10 of SB’s allowed against.
And now on to the guys that who make the base-paths more fun because we aren’t drafting catchers for their caught stealing prowess…
Leonys Martin – Yikes. His production line right now is .111/.172/.130. Steals are sitting at 4, so basically all four times he has been on base he steals something. Just awful.
Anthony Rizzo – Not really a waiver wire option but worth noting that he has 3 steals as does Kris Bryant. The rest of the Cubs as a team have 5. Rizzo career high is 17 a few years back, and it is making his late first round ADP look more Goldschmidt’y.
Aaron Altherr – I kinda wish he gets regular at bats, because I think he has some tools that could be a regular SAGNOF type entity. I crossed the last 8 toes I have left hoping so if you wanna do it to fine, or just go donate to my go fund me page for getting two additional toes.
Brett Gardner – Stat line is still empty with zero dongs and zero steaks. OBP is there as are the steals. So basically he is a dating site void of dongs and food.
Brandon Phillips – Dat dude is back to sorta being that dude. I am way not cool enough to talk slangs and colloquialisms. If he can stay in the two hole for a good part of the year he will gain maximum value with Kemp and Freeman behind. Owned in about 50% of leagues for RCl’s you need a MI, go look and give it a try.
