Willie Bloomquist and Dexter Fowler: Cheap Steals on the Waiver Wire

As you’re tweaking your lineup here and there, looking for a way to steal some points from your opponents, check out how adding some stolen bases to your squad can help you out.  It always seems to be a very movable category in roto leagues and an often disregarded category in head to head.  Adding an extra stolen base guy can give you a nice cheap way to to boost you in the category while also helping you out in areas like runs scored and even batting average.  Here’s a pair of speedsters that seem to be available in plenty of leagues.

Willie Bloomquist |SS, 3B, OF|  Ownership:  ESPN – 7.5%  Yahoo – 11%

Surprisingly, Bloomquist wasn’t a very hot pick up when the Diamondbacks lost Stephen Drew last week.  True, the team called up Cody Ransom and said that the two would split time, but Bloomquist has started eight of the team’s last nine games and has hit safely in all of them.  In fact, with three multi-hit games in that span, he has hit .343 with four runs scored, three RBI and one stolen base.  If you can use the boost in speed and he’s available, he’s definitely worth the shot.

While, at first glance, Bloomquist’s overall numbers don’t look particularly helpful, you have to look at what he did in April when he was playing every day while Drew was hurt early on.  He hit .306 for the first month of the season with 11 runs scored and 7 stolen bases.  Deja vu all over again?  Perhaps.  He seems to be off to similarly hot start again here and the stolen bases should follow in no time.  The .391 BABIP should start to come down a bit, but with regular time, you should also see his K% and BB% regress to the means which will keep his OBP up at a nice healthy rate.  Unless the Diamondbacks start shopping for a shortstop here at the trade deadline, Bloomquist should be in the lineup regularly and hitting leadoff in each game he starts.

Dexter Fowler  |OF|  Ownership:  ESPN – 23.1%  Yahoo – 19%

Since returning to the majors just after the All Star Break, Fowler is doing everything he should be doing.  In 11 games thus far, he is hitting .342 with 10 runs scored and 3 stolen bases.  Well, almost everything.  He’s still striking out a little too much for everyone’s liking and when that .500 BABIP here in July starts to regress, he’ll need to start trimming down those K’s while either maintaining or even improving on his walk rate if he’s going to want to stick in the lineup every day.  His return started a little slowly, but he’s now hit safely in six of his last seven games with four of them being multi-hit performances.  He’s also only struck out four times in his last 18 plate appearances, and while that’s still a 22.2% strikeout rate, it’s still an improvement on what he’s done in the past.  Baby steps to full productivity.

Fowler is still very much a work in progress and if you’re going to use him, you have to be prepared to deal with some of his faults.  He is far from the perfect leadoff hitter, but if you’re simply looking to get a boost in steals and runs scored, can withstand the strikeouts, and have enough batting average help throughout the rest of your lineup, then Fowler can be extremely helpful.  He’s got the game-breaking speed….he just needs to keep his head on straight.





Howard Bender has been covering fantasy sports for over 10 years on a variety of websites. In addition to his work here, you can also find him at his site, RotobuzzGuy.com, Fantasy Alarm, RotoWire and Mock Draft Central. Follow him on Twitter at @rotobuzzguy or for more direct questions or comments, email him at rotobuzzguy@gmail.com

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RCM
12 years ago

ROS: Bloomquist or Jason Bucking Fartlett?

Also, is that the saddest question humanly possible?

Feeding the Abscess
12 years ago
Reply to  RCM

Take Bartlett and his near 24% LD rate.