SAGNOF: Strawman Phallacy

It’s SAGNOF speed week! That means saves are the thing that need to have no faces. We’ll talk a few runners and a few catchers. I’ve included a chart of the catchers yielding the most stolen bases thus far. I find people often forget that half of the equation when trying to find a hitter to stream as a speed spec play. We’re looking for both a volume of steals given up and poor defense throwing runners out.

• Myles Straw has been chipping steals in lately. He cracked double digits in the past week with his tenth and eleventh. He’s still batting at the bottom of the order far too often to be an elite rabbit. We beggars of speed can’t be very choosy, I’m afraid. If he’s on your wire consider whether you can absorb the power drain.
• Don’t look now but Jon Berti swiped two bags in the past week. If you can catch him against division rivals NYM or WAS go ahead and stream away. Berti is like a wild animal that spooks easily so approach with care.
• As the odd name in the top 10 stolen bases ranks, Isaiah Kiner-Falefa’s been stuck at 15 SBs for some time now. Much of that damage came in his three steal outing a couple of weeks ago. Be cautious with counting on steals to come from IKF.
• Victor Caratini is the full-time catcher struggling the most to hold runners in check. Slamdiego tends to rub some folks the wrong way so opponents are probably happy to give an extra green light or two.
• The Great Sanchino is struggling as much as he usually does when it comes to efficiency. Teams aren’t testing Gary Sanchez as often as in past seasons. Keep an eye on that to creep up.
• As part-time catchers go, Zack Collins has been woefully bad in both efficiency throwing runners out and volume of steals against. If you’re in a league with daily moves you should be able to snag a matchup against him here and there.