How does a bastard, 8th Round Selection
And a San Marcos man, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot
In Milwaukee by providence impoverished
In squalor, grow up to be a speedster and stealer?
The $720,000 rookie
Got a lot farther by working a lot harder
By being a lot smarter
By being a self-starter
By twenty-three, they placed him in charge of a guarding the middle
And every day while Tyler O’Neill’s knees were rotting away
Across the harbor, he struggled and kept his guard up
Inside, he was longing for something to be a part of
The brother was ready to beg, steal, borrow, or barter
Then his K-rate came, and devastation reigned
Our man saw his future drip, dripping down the drain
Put a pencil to his temple, connected it to his brain
And he wrote his first refrain, a testament to his pain
Well, the word got around, they said, this kid is insane, man
Took up a collection just to send him to the Majors
Get your education, don’t forget from whence you came
And the world is gonna know your name
What’s your name, man?
David Lewis Hamilton
My name is David Lewis Hamilton
And there’s a million things I haven’t done
But just you wait, just you wait
Sometimes the musicals just write themselves here at Razzball. Kind of like Jo Adell articles every March/April. There’s just a certain amount of artistic beauty in turning Lin-Manuel Miranda into fantasy baseball relevancy.
Striking resemblance really. Anyhoo….Let’s take a quick look at David Hamilton for SAGNOF purposes.
He was called up for the first time in 2023 at the end of June for 12 games before being sent down with a .138 BA. He got another quick sniff in August, but ended his first professional season with a, let’s call it sub-par .121/.256/.182 slash line. Enter 2024 and he looks destined for a lot of time at AAA again, but injuries to Vaughn Grissom and Trevor Story open up spots on the roster at MI less than two weeks into the season and Hamilton came up April 7th and hasn’t looked back.
Currently, he is hitting .282/.339/.436 with three Home Runs and thirteen stolen bases only being caught once. The .366 BABIP isn’t sustainable with his hard hit rate so I would think his average dips into the .240-.250 range. His walk rate however is well below his minor league career norm so that should go up to make up for his reduction in luck. His sprint speed sits at 28.9 Ft/Sec which is good for Top 40 in MLB.
Until the Red Sox get healthy he is playing nearly every day and hitting out of the 6-hole. He hit .333 in May and isn’t slowing down a ton at .286 in June. at 1.5% ESPN ownership you could do a lot worse for yourself if you need to pick up some stolen bases. SAGNOF!
Here’s the Stolen Base Leader Board through Sunday 6/9
The Speed Dials
We went 1 of 4 last week with a Dairon Blanco hit. Remember these are exact dates to pickup and stream steals guys in daily leagues. That means we are now 9 for 40 on the season. Reminder these stats and analysis includes 2023 and 2024 data.
Red Sox vs Phillies – Wednesday June 12th
David Hamilton – Why wouldn’t I have him as a Speed Dial in his namesake article? He’s getting on base and running. He stole four bases against the White Sox this weekend and should be primed for more against Spencer Turnbull and the Phillies. Turnbull has allowed a perfect 8 for 8 to steal against him the last two seasons and .106 SB/IP. He is helped out however by his catchers as both J.T. Realmuto and Garrett Stubbs are Top 25 catchers at throwing runners out.
Nationals vs Tigers – Thursday June 13th
Jesse Winker – You could also go with Jacob Young here, but I’ve had him picked a few times already so going with the underdog here. Winker is rostered in 14.5% of leagues and sits at 11 stolen bases this season. This is after having never stolen more than one base in a season in his career prior to 2024. His sprint speed is awful at 25.8 Ft/Sec so what is going on? Hmm….looks like Dave Martinez is the driving force here as Eddie Rosario is already at 8. Winker will face Casey Mize and the Tigers. Mize allows .102 SB/IP and has had a fair amount of traffic this year. If Carson Kelly is behind the dish I like this a lot less than if it is Jake Rogers as Kelly is #3 on the throwing leaderboard and Jake Rogers sits at #40.
Pirates vs Rockies – Friday June 14th
Jack Suwinski – New Jack City is back in MLB after a short stint down on the farm. He is 18 for 20 in stolen bases the last two seasons and has a slightly above average sprint speed at 28.1 Ft/Sec. He will be opposed by Ryan Feltner who is a walking green light on the basepaths. Runners are converting 89.5% of chances against him and he is giving up .151 SB/IP. Elias Diaz is one of the top catchers in MLB and he’ll try and help Ryan’s faults at holding runners close to first with his arm.
Angels vs Giants – Saturday June 15th
Jo Adell – If he isn’t on waivers in your league he should be. He does have nine stolen bases this year but has been caught six times. Way too many for a guy with 29.0 FT/Sec sprint speed. Is he not leading off? He will be opposed by Kyle Harrison who allows 76.5% of runners to convert and .123 SB/IP. He should get some help from Patrick Bailey behind the plate as he is #2 ranked in Catcher throwing cutting down 30% of runners, but you can’t slow Jo!
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
