Fantasy Baseball Today - Player Profile: Steven Kwan's Sophomore Season (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:02 What will Stephen Kwan do in his sophomore season? Find out next on Fantasy Baseball today in five. Welcome into FBT and 5. Today is Saturday, March 11th. I am Frank Stanfield, joined by Scott White. And let's take a look at Stephen Kwan, who last year hit 298, with only six home runs, but 89 runs scored, 19 steals, one of six players with more walks than strikeouts last season.

Starting point is 00:00:27 Scott, what are your thoughts on Stephen Kwan entering his second year? Very unique player. and one who I find myself drafting more often in points leagues than in categories leagues for obvious reasons. I mean, that's his better format among qualifying batters. Only Luis Arise had a lower strikeout rate than Stephen Kwan. So just by avoiding strikeouts, he makes up for a lot of his deficiencies in points leagues. By avoiding strikeouts, he also hits for a high average, and that's the main appeal in Roto. He's drafted in a range where that's not so easy of a category to fill.

Starting point is 00:01:09 And, you know, he still goes a lot earlier than somebody like a rise, but two things. One, he's outfield, which is a harder position to fill in that format, which is typically five outfield spots. And the other is, you know, he actually can make a pretty good contribution in steals. He had 19 last year, and it was backloaded. He had 14 in the second half. So he ran more as the season went on.

Starting point is 00:01:36 He's not, you know, it doesn't have electrifying speed, but 78th percentile last year pretty good. And since he showed an inclination to run more in the second half, there's some hope that with the new rules, maybe he'll do even more of that. The big downside, the big detractor here with Stephen Kwanis power. So he had only six home runs last year. his max exit velocity was 29th percentile his average exit velocity was third percentile so this is not a guy who hits the ball hard enough to produce power in the current league environments

Starting point is 00:02:17 and I don't see that changing so you just kind of have to take your lumps with that it might be you know if you're if you're the sort of person who took Kyle Schwerber early, let's say, then maybe Stephen Kwan is a reasonable choice to pair with him. It's not ideal because, you know, you're hoping for a big home run advantage by taking Schwerber. But if you don't get enough batting average otherwise,

Starting point is 00:02:46 then maybe you do have to think about drafting somebody like Kwan is your third outfield or preferably third outfielder than second. So that's where I stand with Kwan. I think it's perfectly said, Scott. The other name that came up to me was Matt Olson. You know, if he hits around 250 and gives you 35 plus home runs, or if you just wind up with a bunch of power guys early, maybe Kyle Schorber and Matt Olson on the same team,

Starting point is 00:03:11 then I think in terms of roster construction, adding Stephen Kwan to that roster in a Category's league makes a ton of sense. With the batting average and the steals, you mentioned what he did late in the year. His season construction was interesting. He was awesome in April, Stephen Kwan was. He was brutal in May. I was like, oh, I guess he's going to,

Starting point is 00:03:29 get sent back down. He made adjustments to his credit. From June 1st on, he hit 314 with a 380 on base percentage. Five home runs, 7 steals a 793 OPS. So for someone that doesn't hit for power to still post a 793 OPS, I think

Starting point is 00:03:45 that's pretty impressive for Stephen Kwan. Yeah, and it's worth pointing out the on-base skills there, which are they're not amazing, like in terms of how often he walks, but it's a good enough walk rate that for his high of batting averages he's going to produce a good chance he's able to deliver like a 380 OBP and batting leadoff for for Cleveland and there's a good chance he's

Starting point is 00:04:05 a stud for run scored too. I'm breaking triple digits for that. He only had 89 last year, but I think triple digits is well within the realm of possibility for Kwan and there's not that many players you can say that about. So he is a genuine standout in two of the five categories, batting average and runs. He's at least decent at stolen bases with the potential to be more, but he's just going to be dreadful and home runs in RBI. The ADP for Stephen Kwan is 116.2.

Starting point is 00:04:35 Would you rather have Kwan or Anthony Santander? I'd rather have Kwan, all things being equal. Of course, if you're talking to roto context, it kind of depends on categorical need. But all things being equal, I'll take Kwan. How about Kwan versus Jake McCarthy? Same thing. But I think generally I'd be more inclined to take McCarthy. as the safer bet for stolen bases.

Starting point is 00:05:05 Obviously, Points League's different story. Kwan's a whole tier higher in Points League's. Yeah, I think those guys are pretty close in terms of skill set, but better batting average from Kwan, maybe a little bit more pop from McCarthy. I think I like Kwan, but that one is really close. We're going to wrap there for more extensive fantasy baseball coverage. Listen to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast,

Starting point is 00:05:25 the Odyssey app, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball today in 5, and we'll be back again next week. Bye-bye.

Fantasy Baseball Today - Player Profile: Steven Kwan's Sophomore Season (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 podcast)

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