Jose Reyes costs too much, and one-trick ponies like Willy Taveras, Michael Bourn and Juan Pierre are one pulled hamstring away from being totally worthless. | MLB page

Dave Roberts? Age appears to have finally caught up with and lapped him.

So, what's a fantasy baseball owner to do for stolen bases?

Many bite the bullet, ante up for a speedster and hope they swipe 40 or more. Or, you could target players likely to steal 10 to 20 bases. But it takes a lot of those to be competitive in the category.

Let's take a look at three levels of base burglars and their prospects for thievery the rest of the way.

Running wild

These guys are piling up the bags and should continue to do so.

Count Bourn (13 stolen bases), Taveras (13) and Minnesota's Carlos Gomez (13) in this group.

But none of the three are particularly accomplished hitters and slumps could lead to decreased playing time.

Proven base stealers who can be counted upon include Hanley Ramirez (10), Brian Roberts (10), Chone Figgins (10) and Carl Crawford (eight).

Running on empty

Reyes leads the way here. Sure, he's got eight stolen bases, but after piling up 78 last season that's too slow of a start for Reyes owners.

Arizona's Eric Byrnes shocked the fantasy world by swiping 50 in 2007. He's not leading off anymore and it's showing with just three stolen bases thus far. Diamondbacks' teammate Chris Young is leading off but he's not running much either with just three after 27 a year ago.

The Mets' David Wright was a 30-30 man in 2007, but he'll have to step up the pace considerably to do it again. He's got just four. And another Met, Carlos Beltran, just doesn't steal like he used to. He surpassed 40 stolen bases in 2003 and '04 but currently has only three.

Running to daylight

Players stealing more than expected over the first month include Ian Kinsler and Alex Rios (seven each), Nick Markakis (six), Adrian Beltre (four) and Jayson Werth (four).

Lance Berkman isn't just cracking home runs, he has four stolen bases already after getting seven all last season.

We knew Jacoby Ellsbury could run, but what we didn't know was if Coco Crisp was going to steal playing time and stolen base opportunities. Ellsbury is doing fine with nine bags in just 79 at-bats.

Numbers game

Who's leading all catchers in home runs so far? It's not Russell Martin, Brian McCann or Victor Martinez.

The Angels' Mike Napoli holds that distinction with seven long balls in 62 at-bats.

A couple of surprise American League leaders in early May would have to be Carlos Quentin of the White Sox with eight home runs and Texas' Josh Hamilton with 32 RBI.

And Saturday offered a bonanza for a pair of usually light-hitting middle infielders. Washington's Cristian Guzman and Arizona's Augie Ojeda each had six RBIs.

That's a daily double with extraordinarily long odds.

Randy Reinhardt is a sportswriter for The Pantagraph. Contact him at rreinhardt@pantagraph.com