Razzball Stolen Base Targets On Waivers In Daily Leagues

I’m back from Mexico where I enjoyed opening day with a Spicy Cucumber Margarita in my hand. I wasn’t picking up any stolen base targets right away after the draft season, but now it’s time to decide who the guys I might want to look at in daily leagues are where a steal could be in the mix.

So last year a big thank you went out 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 it is now known as the “Speed Dial”.

Lots of things go into looking for prime SB targets:

Who the opposing pitcher is and what is his SB allowance rate. Quite a few things go into that. The easiest one to look at is SB/IP. This takes into account a pitcher WHIP issue, but also how well they hold opposing runners. However, even a guy like Corbin Burnes who doesn’t allow a lot of traffic can be a pitcher to look at when streaming a SB target because once runners get to first against him they usually end up on second.

The catcher also plays a big role. Things like “Pop Time” and “Exchange Rate” come into play here. Catchers play a role, but not quite as much as those throwing them the ball. Even so, there are catchers like Keibert Ruiz and Jose Trevino who can’t throw runners out to save their ass.

Finally if you can’t run fast, or learn to get a jump off pitchers you won’t be able to steal many bags. Seems simple, but even some of the guys who have a high stolen base total only succeed around 65% of the time compared to the league average in 2024 of 78.4%. Guys with high Sprint Rate and “Bolts” according to Statcast are target guys.

Here’s the very. very, very early stolen base leaderboard.

Kinda cool to see the Cruz missile on pace for 162 Steals this season. This will level out, but we will check on this every week.

When I look at daily stolen base streaming targets…Remember these are called “Speed Dials”, I’m looking for guys available in more than 50% of ESPN or Yahoo leagues on waivers who could fill in for you for a day. This week I’m not gonna play exact match-ups as pitchers aren’t quite locked in for this next week at this point with the opening day then day off BS still in play for many teams. Instead, I’m gonna point out a few guys who should be on waivers you could plug in for daily leagues and if they’re in the lineup are worth a quick look.

Johan Rojas, OF – Phillies:

Rojas has a sprint speed that trailed just one guy in 2024… Bobby Witt Jr. – He can flat our fly. Think Grey after an hour with B_Don on the weekly Razzball podcast. He stole 25 bases in just 363 plate appearances last year. If he’s in the starting lineup and you need to stream an outfielder he’s a guy to look at. His role looks limited right now, but he’ll get chances especially on getaway days and against lefties.

Ryan Bliss, 2B – Mariners:

Bliss looks like he is locked into the keystone right now most days for the Mariners. It’s early, but if he’s getting on base enough he’ll stick, and his glove plays well with a .987 fielding percentage last year in 177 innings at second. His sprint speed isn’t elite, but it’s above average at 28.5 Ft/sec. His jump is slightly above average and he got caught barely below the normal percent in both the minors and short major league stints in 2024. All that said he still likes to run and at the bottom of that order he should get plenty of green lights if he gets his SB percentage to stay consistently above 75%.

That’s it for us here in the SAGNOF department for April 1st kids. Keep on checking in, there’s exact date pickups coming soon!