Where have you gone, Vince Coleman?

Base stealing is something of a lost art in the major leagues. Long gone are the days when Rickey Henderson and Vince Coleman were tearing up the basepaths - we haven't seen anyone crack the 80-steal mark since Henderson (93) and Coleman (81) led their respective leagues in swipes in 1988.

Teams are running less frequently than they did in the free-wheeling '80s, which has made the stolen base category so vital in fantasy baseball.

That explains why multi-talented speed merchants Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez, Carl Crawford and Ichiro Suzuki are considered elite fantasy stars, and why speedsters such as Shane Victorino (32 steals) and Brian Roberts (32), who also contribute in other hitting categories, are useful commodities.


There are, of course, some other fringe players who tend to be overvalued simply because of their wheels. Depending on where you stand in your league's stolen base category (and excluding those in head-to-head leagues), the way you handle these types of players can ultimately determine your fate.

At this point in the season, you should have a good idea of where you stand in each category and if you'll be able to make a move upward. If you're lagging far behind in steals, what's the sense in holding on to a mostly one-dimensional base stealer? On the flip side, if you think you can actually make up ground in stolen bases, that one dimension might be just what you're looking for.

Wherever you stand in steals, here are a few of the key guys to consider either picking up or trading away for help elsewhere:

• Juan Pierre (44 steals through Saturday): The Dodgers outfielder has long been prized for his running abilities, but he hasn't really mastered hitting, particularly this year. His .277 batting average isn't terrible, but his 27 RBIs and zero home runs are.

• Willy Taveras (29): A move to the Colorado Rockies and Coors Field this season helped the quick Taveras also become a batting-average booster (.317). That makes his "power" numbers (two homers, 22 RBIs) a bit easier to swallow.

• Chone Figgins (28): It's almost an identical story for Figgins, who's hitting a robust .339 but has little to no power (1 HR, 37 RBIs). He got off to a very slow start for the Angels but has stayed hot throughout the summer months, so the hits and steals should both keep coming.

• Julio Lugo (26): The high-priced shortstop acquisition was looking like a colossal bust for the Boston Red Sox. His average had dipped to an almost-unfathomable .189 on July 2, which despite his steady stolen base total forced some owners to outright drop him. Lugo has raised his average to a less putrid .222 thanks to a sizzling month. If he's still available, or if you've put up with him all this time, it seems he'll no longer be a disaster at the plate.

• Corey Patterson (28): Patterson had a nice bounce-back season last year, his first with the Baltimore Orioles, thanks mainly to a career high in steals (45), along with 16 home runs. Patterson's still running this year, but he's gone yard only five times, which isn't exactly what his owners had in mind.