Thank you very much to our everything guru here around Razzball Vinwins. He managed to nail the exact terminology I was looking for in regards to our Stolen Base Streamers. Anytime you grab a guy for your roster looking for a stolen base I will henceforth be referring to it as a Speed Dial.
So what is going on in the world of speed? Well, to start off with Esteury Ruiz is back up from his Athletics ownership punishment in the minors. All he did while down was hit 3 Home Runs and swipe 7 bags. Plus he homered in his only at-bat upon his return Monday night. If someone dropped him in your league I highly suggest getting on that faster than Ruiz gets down to first base.
As FML mentioned in Monday’s opening Jonatan Clase has also been called up by the Mariners. His hit tool is weak, but he has 80 Grade speed baby! He also has shown some pop in the bat hitting 20 Home Runs across two levels last year to go along with his 79 for 94 on stolen bases. The nice thing about Clase and why I think he will play long-term is he does have excellent patience at the plate. He walked 82 times in 595 Plate appearances good for 13.8%. If you’re getting to first base one of every 8 trips to the plate steals are gonna come for a guy with his speed.
Here’s our steals leaderboard.
The Speed Dials – So far on the articles this season we are 4 for 12 on Speed Dials. That’s more 50 points higher than the batting average of every qualified hitter on the Twins with the exception of Alex Kirilloff.
Giants vs Marlins – Wednesday April 17th
Jung-Hoo Lee – My take on Lee Pre-season was that he was more Ho Hum Lee than anything. Nothing in his KBO lines screamed MLB Fantasy impact. I still think that, but we’re picking him to swipe a base today. Lee is still available in 41.5% of ESPN leagues so he could be had in some places. His sprint speed numbers are in and so far he is showing above MLB average at 28.3 Ft/Second. Plus, he has already stolen two bases on the season. A.J. Puk will oppose him on the mound and Puk has allowed 100% of base stealers to succeed the last two seasons and is giving up a stolen base/Innings Pitched ratio of .149. His battery mate is likely to be Nick Fortes who is 50th of 64th in catcher throwing rankings only cutting down 13% of would be base stealers.
Red Sox vs Guardians – Thursday April 18th
Ceddanne Rafaela – He hasn’t been in the lineup every day but is getting more than half the starts. He is going to need to start hitting soon or he will find his way back to the minors quickly. He is tied for 18th in MLB sprint speed, but due to his lack of getting on base has only stolen one bag so far. What better way to get off the schneid than against Carlos Carrasco. C-squared has allowed two steals already this season and is giving up .136 SB/IP the last two years with a 93.3% success rate against. It doesn’t matter whether it is Bo Naylor or Austin Hedges behind the dish as both are below MLB average at throwing out runners. If Ceddanne gets on he’s going.
Cardinals vs Brewers – Friday April 19th
Lars Nootbaar – Back from injury it’s time for the Noot to loot. Last season he was 11 for 12 on the basepaths so if the opportunity is there he can succeed. He will face off against DL Hall who so far this season is allowing plenty of traffic. Small sample size, but Hall has allowed all three baserunners to succeed the last two years in the majors. If William Contreras is behind the plate his chances are better than Gary Sanchez. Contreras is only at 16% for cutting down runners while Sanchez is at 24%.
Phillies vs White Sox – Saturday April 20th
Johan Rojas/Whit Merrifield – Not sure which one of these two will be in the lineup against Mike Soroka and the White Sox. Neither one of them has hit to start the season, but both can run with Rojas tied for 16th in sprint speed and Merrifield tied at 53rd. They are both a threat to swipe a bag Saturday if they get on base. Soroka can’t seem to get anyone out so I like their chances better than I do on most days. Soroka actually holds runners well, but due to high traffic has still allowed .116 SB/IP the last two seasons. Martin Maldonado and Korey Lee are both middle of the pack in throwing out runners.
As always, if you’re looking for anything further out for next week where we don’t have exact pitching match-ups hit me up here or on Twitter @TheGreatKnoche
Excellent stuff Gnocci! Good work yo!
Thanks Squat!