As we’ve mentioned previously in other articles it is difficult to quantify fantasy value in regards to how a manager manages his team. What we need to do in order to identify that value is to look for trends, or tendencies. Last week we found some tendencies from several managers when dealing with their starting rotation and identified a couple managers that left starting pitchers in longer than most, regardless of success. What this provides is more chances for strikeouts, quality starts and wins, all valuable contributions to a fantasy staff.

This week we’re going to take a look at which managers are being more aggressive on the base paths and which players are benefitting the most from their ever so eager skippers. Steals have become arguably the most valuable and most coveted category in fantasy baseball leagues. Identifying which managers are more likely to give the green light can be of great importance if searching for steals from here on out. Now let’s get a... “jump” on our opponents. I’ll see myself out.

Bud Black, Colorado Rockies

Mr. Black has been around the block a few times. As manager of the San Diego Padres from 2007-2015, Black’s Padres were 12th in baseball over that span in stolen bases. As time went on however, he became even more aggressive. In Bud Blacks’ last six seasons as the San Diego skipper, from 2010-2015, the Padres finished second overall in stolen bases with 740 or just over 123 per season. That’s a large sample size and one we can trust going forward.

That leads us to 2018 where again Bud Black has his Colorado Rockies sitting at fourth in the category with 18 swipes on 24 attempts. Knowing that Black will continue to give his team the go ahead makes it easier to project rest of season reliability, we just have to see who is benefitting the most from it. Colorado has eight players with a successful stolen base, seven of them being regulars in the everyday lineup. Short stop Trevor Story leads the way with five, followed by D.J. LeMahieu and Ian Desmond with three. A 75% success rate in terms of stolen bases is considered a good percentage in Major League Baseball and that is exactly where the Rockies sit a month into the season.

Brian Snitker, Atlanta Braves

Another Snitker sighting in the Managerial Tendency portion of the Fantasy Alarm Playbook articles and for good reason, Atlanta is playing exciting baseball and have a ton of young talent. We’re going to continue to learn a ton about this new manager as the season goes on, making this team a little more difficult to project than Colorado. Early returns show a strong willingness to create runs by being aggressive on the base paths. The Braves have attempted 29 steals and have converted 21 of them for a slightly less than ideal 72.4% success rate. Atlanta is clearly riding their raw talent early on so even though they’ve been caught eight times already in 2018, they’re showing no signs of slowing down.

Only five players have a steal in Atlanta, most of which have come from their “core” of Albies, Swanson, Freeman and Inciarte. Phenom Ronald Acuña has just been called up and has blazing speed however he just simply hasn’t had the opportunity to steal bases thus far. Albies, Swanson and Freeman all have two swipes and Ryan Flaherty has three. The surprise here is that their stolen base leader and current MLB stolen base leader is Ender Inciarte . He has a whopping twelve steals in fourteen attempts and is on pace for just over 77 steals. Atlanta is a very young team that hopes to compete now so it doesn’t seem as though this is a team or manager that will be easing off the gas anytime soon. Look for the Braves to continue to push the envelope and rack up the steals here in 2018.

Rick Renteria, Chicago White Sox

The White Sox have stormed out of the gates to begin the 2018 season and have a top ten offense according to most advanced metrics. They’re sixth in home runs and second in steals, however, they’re also 28th in BB/K ratio, showing the all or nothing type of offense that has gotten them to this point. As a team they’ve attempted 29 steals while converting 24 of them for a healthy 82.7% success rate. Ranking 18th in OBP as a team makes their propensity to steal all the more exciting. Ranking second in steals with that low of a team OBP means they’re trying to manufacture runs and swipe bags more frequently than other teams.

In comparison, Atlanta has attempted the same amount of steals yet have a much higher team OBP at .339 than Chicago’s .313. Tim Anderson is the go to for a steal in this offense as he leads the team with eight steals followed by Leury García at five and Yoan Moncada at four. Yolmer Sánchez , Adam Engel and Nick Delmonico have combined for another seven steals rounding out all of the recipients of Renteria’s aggressive approach on the bases. Anderson and Moncada have shown they have the wheels to steal a ton of bags and while Leury García doesn’t have a big track record for steals in the big leagues, he has an extensive resume in that department at the minor league level with almost 100 steals in AA and AAA in four seasons combined. Anderson and Moncada have the ability to thrive in the steals category and Renteria doesn’t look like he’s going to be the one to hold them back.

Dave Martinez, Washington Nationals

What’s going on in the nation's capital? The Nationals came into the season with championship aspirations and have struggled to begin 2018 with a 12-16 record. They just can’t stay healthy as Adam Eaton , Anthony Rendón , Daniel Murphy and Brian Goodwin are all currently on the disabled list. A high team OBP (.331) and they’re top ranked BB/K ratio suggest that a turnaround is due offensively. Having Bryce Harper , Trea Turner and Ryan Zimmerman as the main healthy core of your lineup keeps it serviceable and when the DL squad returns the Nationals will again be one of the scarier offenses in all of baseball.

A team that is missing that many members of its original lineup are clearly feeling forced to manufacture runs and get guys into scoring position as they are the number one team in steals this season. They have a success rate of 85.7% after swiping 30 out of 35 bags thus far. Manager Dave Martinez looks to be feeling aggressive based on everything we’ve mentioned above. Bryce Harper , Brian Goodwin and Wilmer Difo have provided their fair share of steals with 3, 2 and 2, respectively. The lions share however, has come from Trea Turner and Michael A. Taylor with 11 and 9 respectively. Even more impressive is the fact that the top three guys in Turner, Taylor and Harper have combined for 23 steals without being caught once so far in 2018.

Expect Turner and Taylor to continue burning the base paths even when some of the big bats return while tempering expectations for Harper who topped out at 21 steals two years ago. Martinez wants to let his players be aggressive but remain smart and with this much talent in the speed department there is little doubt that Washington can remain the number one team in steals throughout the season.