#How fantasy baseball owners can steal some points

By Howard Bender, Fantasy Alarm

The COVID-19 outbreak brought about massive changes to the MLB landscape. From a 60-game season to bigger rosters to the universal DH to a massive schedule overhaul, this is a baseball season unlike any we’ve ever witnessed.

In the fantasy baseball world, the focus has been so heavy on accruing at-bats and worrying about starting pitcher innings-limits, many people have forgotten some key strategies we were ready to employ this season.

Like, where is the outcry for stolen bases? Just because the season is shorter, doesn’t mean your need for speed should be overlooked.

Considering this season’s sprint toward an expanded playoff format, teams are trying to be more aggressive on the bases in an effort to steal wins. Heading into this weekend, teams had played an average of 11 games each, and we already had 162 stolen bases. If you prorate that number over the course of a 162-game season, you end up with 2,385 stolen bases, which puts us 105 steals ahead of last season. With no guarantee that teams will keep up with this pace, you need to identify where you can grab some extra speed.

The individual leaderboard will give you names like Tommy Pham, Luis Robert and Fernando Tatis, Jr. The three of them lead the league right now, but none of them had more than five stolen bases, and unless you have a heavy surplus of stats in another category, they could be extremely difficult to acquire. What you need to do is look at which teams are being the most aggressive on the bases, because that is where you can dig deeper to find help.

Leading the majors in steals were the Padres with a total of 20. Pham and Tatis accounted for nine of those, which means we should be digging deeper for potential trade or waiver targets. Two names that obviously stand out are Trent Grisham and Jurickson Profar.

Neither is a marquee name, both are seeing an abundance of playing time and both have the green light. You can also look at Wil Myers, who is not only hitting for power and average, but has also totaled double-digit steal numbers in each of his last four seasons.

Beyond San Diego, both Seattle and Texas have also been fairly aggressive on the bases. The Mariners are second in the majors in stolen bases as names like Shed Long, Dylan Moore and J.P. Crawford linger on your waiver wire. The Rangers rank third with Elvis Andrus, Isaiah Kiner-Falefa and Nick Solak regularly contributing. Neither team is counting itself out this season, so you can expect the trend to continue.

Just because the season is shorter doesn’t mean we can forget some of the strategies we were primed to employ back in February. Saves and steals were our goal back then and with so many bullpens in such disarray, steals should become an even bigger priority. Lock down the category and you should have an advantage the rest of the way.

Howard Bender is the VP of operations and head of content at Fantasy-Alarm.com. Follow him on Twitter @rotobuzzguy and catch him on the award-winning “Fantasy Alarm Radio Show” on the SiriusXM fantasy sports channel weekdays from 6-8 p.m. Go to FantasyAlarm.com for all your fantasy baseball advice.