Opening Day is jam-done, so what have we learned?
Emilio Bonifacio is better suited for America’s Mid-West, cause he’s cookin’ up some speed. He’ll be the number one waiver wire claim, almost certainly. Will it last? Does Speed Last in a Trailer Park? Does a Trailer Park Last in Tornado Alley?
The Baseball Cube has Bonifacio coming in at a 97 speed which, after looking through his 6 minor league seasons, means he’s stealing a base every three games or so. His speed numbers took a huge hit in the 2008 season, but I coudln’t be bothered sifting through injury reports at this point. Bonifacio’s Minor League Numbers are available here, if you’d like to break it down.
So the speed is no joke, but what about the Pitcher / Catcher combo he was running on all night. Lannan’s a lefty, so I’m assuming he’s at least half-decent with his pick-off move. How he is out of the stretch, who knows — I didn’t get to watch the game.
Jesus Flores is about a league-average to slightly above average, defensive catcher. Flores has thrown out roughly 30 percent of base runners in the past two years, which is quite a solid number. He’s predicted to throw out roughly 24 percent of theives this year, which puts him right at league average.
So there were no “free” passes, from what I can gather having not watched the game. However, Bonifacio’s main problem is getting his arse on-base. He’s predicted to hit only .260-.270, and get on-base around .315 by just about all of the prediction robots.
Florida likes to run, and Bonifacio will run, if he can just get on base. What you should be focusing on, is Bonifacio batting lead-off. If he continues to hit lead-off, then he’ll have some serious fantasy value. With the amount of power hitting strike-out artists batting behind him in the line-up, I’d expect plenty of straight-steals and plenty o’ runs scored.
How long he can hold off Maybin, will determine Bonifacio’s true value. In deep leagues, I’d pounce if he’s still around. I’d imagine he would have got nabbed after Dirty Dallas McPherson’s release, if you’re in a deep league though.
If someone like Carlos Gomez, Elvis Andrus or Michael Bourn isn’t rostered in your league — You probably don’t want to rush out and grab Bonifacio.
In other news, Brandon Ryan got the start at second base for the Cardinals. Skip Schumaker came in to pitch hit, and promptly stole a base. This is probably more to due with Paul Maholm being a lefty than anything else (Ryan’s a righty, and Skip’s a leftie.)
If you have a waiver-wire claim in for Skip Schumaker as your second-baseman, I’d make sure to keep it active. In Yahoo Leagues, Schumaker should be a second basemen a week from now.
Neither Justin Upton, nor Mark Reynolds were in the line-up today to face Righty Aaron Cook. Eric Byrnes filled in nicely, going 0-fer with 2 strike-outs. Tony Clark on the other hand, who played first with Chad Tracy moving to third, KILLED THE OMFG SMASH-KILLING OF THE BASEBALL. He and my most favourite of Lopez’s (including, but not limited to, George Lopez,) Felipe Lopez, smashed killed the ball for 2 HR each. Both Clark and Lopez, did it batting both left handed, and right handed.
No other real surprises, except that Caesar Izturis owners are probably talking a whole-lotta shit right now after 1 HR and 5 total bases.
Blue Jays Win! Lind and Snider look great! 161 left.
