Borbon; lead the AL in steals?

[redsrbetter]

Per rotoworld:

Julio Borbon is hoping to steal 50 bases this season.

Borbon should have the green light as the Rangers' new leadoff hitter and he has flashed enough speed in the past to warrant the lofty goal. The 24-year-old swiped 19 bases in 23 attempts during his 46-game stay with the big league club last year. As the Dallas Morning News points out, that's a 74-steal pace for 162 games.

Anyone think he can be the steals leader this season? I am not sure he can with the fat lineup he has behind him. The Rangers may elect to wait for the HR than to chance getting caught on the basis. They have big bats behind him and I think it will limit him from stealing a base in a 2 outs situation.

[Kingdom]

179 plate appearances is hard to judge anyone, so I'm not buying the OBP yet. Hey if he gets on base, he has a great chance to steal 70 or more.

[redsrbetter]

He could be Willy Tavares esque, or he could be a part of bringing old school baseball back. Seems like a lot of teams are looking for speed these days and they can't just buy it off of General.

With the HR era dwindling down and almost out of sight and into the past, will we start to see more Rickey Henderson types in baseball again?

Note: this is not to undermine Rickey. The guy was much more than a basestealer.

[Kingdom]

I think there's plenty of power out there. Quite a few of the hyped young guns are power hitters: Longoria, Braun, Votto, Kemp, etc. Then there's the future of the future guys like Weiters, Heyward, etc.

I wouldn't count that ERA out just yet. Sure, the chance of people chasing Big Mac's record are.. maybe just two guys (Pujols, Howard), but the 30-40 and maybe 50 homerun guys are still there. A lot of it is just potential.

As for Borbon, I don't think we can call him Taveras or Roger Cedeno, or anyone of that guard until we get a larger sample size. If the man can maintain a .370 OBP, then he's probably a lethal lead off type. Perhaps Michael Bourn is a better comparison?

[missionhockey21]

I think power is still alive and well. Just instead of greater discrepancy between the top tier HR guys and everyone else, there is more power at 30-45 production level.

[redsrbetter]

I can agree with your guys' power assessment. I guess I was just talking about the hype factor that comes in with someone threatening Bonds' single season record. There are still some power bats, and I think they are essential in this sport to keep the game alive. But I also see that the power isn't a part of every single prospect's game. I think we are moving into the new era, which was the old era before the steroids. However slowly it may be, we are getting there.

So Borbon being the new breed of baseball player may be a bit of a stretch. KOZ hit it on the head, he is more like a Michael Bourn than anything else for now. But I still think scouts and GMs are looking for speed a lot more than they used to.