Welcome back, FA Nation! Get ready for this week’s edition of Category Impact! If you’re new to the site or just forget how this article works since last week, let me offer a quick refresher.
Category Impact will offer up anywhere from four to six players that can help you out in a certain category, whether it is stolen bases, home runs, or strikeouts. Some weeks, there will be an added focus on a specific categories, while others will be just players that you will want to pick up, but there will be in-depth analysis detailing exactly what category, or categories, a certain player will be of added benefit.
This week’s featured category is…. STOLEN BASES! We got a need for speed this week FA Nation!
Delino DeShields , OF TEX – Man oh man, it was just a few months ago that fantasy owners were reaching for DeShields in his/her fantasy drafts. The 10th or 11th round rolled around and owners were worried that they would miss out on DeShields services. A few weeks before that you could get the speedy outfielder closer to the 20th round. However, his ownership has plummeted since the start of the season, due to an early season DL stint and an extended slump at the plate. His ownership is slowly on the rise as he’s now respectable at the plate, but May was a different story.
DeShields stole seven bases in the month of May, but a .202 batting average and .295 on-base percentage in 114 at-bats that month is putrid. DeShields has the second fastest sprint speed (30.2 ft/sec) in the majors this season and has a proficient 88.2 percent success rate on stolen base attempts this season. As mentioned earlier, his ownership is slowly rising (35% on Yahoo, 26.8% on ESPN), so it’s imperative you act quickly so that you don’t miss your opportunity on DeShields.
Michael Taylor , OF WSH – Taylor’s ownership is a bit higher than the typical player I like to include in Category Impact, but perhaps some owner in your league jumped ship from Taylor, considering the fact that it’s a crowded outfield in the nation’s capital. However, when Taylor plays, Washington lets him run. Not only does he lead the league with 21 steals, he leads all of baseball in stolen bases this month with eight swiped bags. His Spd statistic on Fangraphs is up from recent years, and his current wSB metric of 2.5 would easily be a career best. In fact, he trails only his teammate Trea Turner in the wSB metric among qualified individuals. Taylor is running more than years past and his track record at the minor league level displayed potential that he could be a big time stolen base guy in the bigs.
Consistent playing time might not be a possibility for him, but he should get plenty of opportunities to run, whether it by means of a start or as a late-game pinch runner.
Rajai Davis , OF CLE – Talking about burners, even at 37 years old, Mr. Davis can flat out fly! Among qualified players, Davis’ elite 29.5 ft/sec sprint speed trails only some of the game’s elite, like Byron Buxton , Delino DeShields , Billy Hamilton , Trea Turner , Ronald Acuna , etc. Davis has five stolen bases this month, despite a meager .250 batting average and .308 on-base percentage. The veteran speedster has an 81.25 percent success rate when attempting to steal this season. Playing time was sporadic, but he’s suiting up frequently as of late and has swiped two bags in the process. When targeting steals, it’s important to get guys that are currently doing it, or perhaps even have a good track record of doing it.
Despite getting older, Davis has swiped 29 or more bases seven of the last eight seasons and he’s currently on pace for 31 this season. He’s hardly owned in any format, so you can comfortably add him to your roster.
Charlie Tilson , OF CWS – Tilson has just three stolen bases on the year, but if he could be a consistent producer at the big league level, he could easily be a 20+ stolen base guy for years to come. Back in 2015 at the Double-A level, Tilson stole 46 bases in 134 games. The following year, he stole 15 bags (in 18 attempts) at the Triple-A level. In 2018, through 26 games with the big league club, he’s swiped three bags, but has been caught twice. At 25 years young, there’s still time for him to develop, but he’s a bit of an unknown, seeing as he has under 30 career games under his belt. He’s sporting a sufficient batting average and on-base percentage, and Chicago looks as if they are going to give him every opportunity to produce.
Tilson is a bit of a long shot, but he’s hardly owned in any format, making him that perfect, under-the-radar guy that could pay dividends in the end. However, worst-case scenario, you roster him for a week or two, and if it doesn’t pan out, we move onto the next one.
BONUS: Completely unrelated to stolen bases, In light of the Kelvin Herrera trade to Washington, Kevin McCarthy is a guy I’m taking a look at. Despite a poor June thus far, he posted 16 strikeouts in his first 23.2 innings of the year. The second-year pro out of Marist carries some risk, but someone has to close out games in Kansas City.