You Can’t Spell Burriss Without SB
Stolen bases are annoying.
Most offensive stats in fantasy baseball are interrelated – if you hit a home run, you also score a run and drive (at least) a run in on at the same time. But stolen bases are almost entirely unrelated to the other offensive categories, and are therefore the most inefficient and difficult offensive stat to obtain.
Players who offer power as well as steals – such as Grady Sizemore – tend to be extremely valuable, and rightly so. Therefore, it behooves the smart fantasy player to find late-round picks who can rack up a lot of steals. While they may not contribute too much in other categories, the idea is that you are able to stock up on power hitters earlier, and then steal some steals (get it?) late.
With that in mind, meet Emmanuel Burriss.
The 23-year-old shortstop debuted for the San Francisco Giants this year, posting a line of .283/.357/.323. More importantly for you, he stole 13 bases (in 18 attempts) in a mere 240 at bats. With the departure of Omar Vizquel and the dearth of other shortstops in the Giants system, Burris has the inside track on the shortstop gig in San Francisco next year. Of course, he’s not likely to be particularly good – in fact, his minor league track record suggests that Burris may be one of the worst hitters in baseball next year.
However, that doesn’t really matter to you. What matters is that Burris is fast. Very fast. In 2007, he stole 68 bases in 125 games. The year before he stole 34 bases in 65 games. That kind of speed is rare to find – and it’s even rarer that a guy with that kind of speed is going to be playing every day.
Furthermore, Burriss has demonstrated an excellent ability to put the ball in play during his short professional career. Of course, he rarely walks and has virtually no power, but he also doesn’t strike out too often. This means that he should be able to keep his batting average respectable – even if his OBP is poor and his SLG is downright abysmal. While the Giants may be concerned about his lack of patience and power, fantasy players only care about his batting average and stolen bases – both of which should be respectable, at least.
Emmanuel Burriss isn’t very good, at least not yet. He won’t hit many homers or drive in many runs, but he’s extremely fast and is line to play every day. If he can manage 600 plate appearances this year, Burris could steal in the neighborhood of 40-50 bases. While the risk is rather high, there are few players out there who could give you that many steals…especially players who are likely to be available very late in your draft.
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I don’t think it’s right to say Burriss isn’t very good, at least from a fantasy standpoint. He has shown in the minors that he can hit for average and steal plenty of bases. If he steals 50 bases he is in Jose Reyes territory, and the 10 fewer homeruns that he hits can easily be made up in other roster spots. 50 stolen bases from a position that isn’t going to get you much production anyway (unless you have Hanley or maybe Drew or Rollins) is fantasy gold. And I’d say that the risk is actually very low….a guy who can be that valuable with a low pick? There’s no reason not to go for it….
P.S. the name is Burriss, not Burris (just sayin)
Oops, that’s rather embarrassing to spell his name wrong. Thanks for pointing that out.
I agree that Burriss could be fairly valuable. The problem is that he could be SO BAD in real life (OBP and SLG) that the Giants bench him. If he plays every day, then you’re absolutely right – 50 steals is well within reason, even if he’s only getting on base 30% of the time.
Like a lot of the young Giants players, it looks like he’s been seriously rushed to the majors. No AA experience and then all of 14 games in AAA. The guy appears to have decent plate discipline too. 9%-ish BB% I’d argue is really good for a player who doesn’t appear to be much of a power threat.
Maybe he just needs a bit more time to develop. CHONE projects him as an average defensive shortstop, even though Baseball America liked his defense at one point. Not sure being average would help him keep the job any longer, but if he’s perceived as being good it could help his cause to get those at-bats he’d need.
Peter: Yeah i see what you mean….kind of like what happened to Juan Pierre this year. The Giants aren’t exactly in the thick of the NL west competition….or exactly the deepest team in the league….so if he can hit for average I think he has a good shot, but David has a good point that he has barely any experience above high A, so he might just need more time to develop.
I agree with David: I’m not saying that Burriss can’t or won’t be a good player at the ML level, but there’s not much evidence that he’s ready to be even adequate now.
However, the Giants are so short on position players – and tend to overvalue things like batting average, where Burriss should be at least respectable – that it’s entirely possible that he manages 500-600 plate appearances this year.
I don’t recall ever seeing a hitter improve more from one side of the plate as quickly as Emmanuel Burriss under the tutelage of hitting coach Carney Lansford. Manny has been pretty much a slap hitter from both sides of the plate, but he was particularly deficient from the left side.
With the help of a lot of hard work and the coaching of Lansford, Manny pumped his lefty hitting right up there with his right-handed swinging, even hitting his first (and so far only) major league homer from the left side.
That said, he will be only two seasons away from batting just .165 at High A San Jose and being demoted to Low A Augusta, where he bounced back to bat over .300. Emmanuel was one of a few potentially premature callups by the talent-challenged Giants who actually performed decentlly. Manny was protected from right-handed pitchers early on, then learned to hit them.
His .283 batting average is likely higher than his career mark will be. Manny still hits for less than 1.2 bases per hit, just as he did in the minors, so it would still be premature to say he’s ready for everyday duty in the majors.
But he handled some of it surprisingly well in 2008, and with the Giants’ continued lack of middle-infield talent, he likely will get every chance to play everyday at shortstop or second this coming season.
Great kid. Appears to be a hard worker. Hits the ball on the ground and has the speed to make it work. Hits the ball sharply at times, albeit with little power.
Reality Rog–Isn’t it a little premature to be talking about what his career average will be?