Originally posted on 5/26People shy away from the big guy because he strikes out a lot. They point to his low batting average. (His batting average over the past 5 years has been .259, I bet your perception was that his BA was a lot lower then that wasn’t it.)
Despite the K’s and average batting average (the MLB average this decade so far is .261), MLB GM’s drool over this type of player and you should too because he’s always on base. This means that not only will he knock in runs, but since he’s on base all the time (He leads MLB in walks) he is a potential scoring run as well. He’s 1st in all of MLB in walks with 38 and that more than offsets for his strikeouts and average BA.
The big guy has averaged 41 HR’s and .382 OBP over the past 5 years. You know who else has averaged 41 HR’s the past 5 years? A-Rod. A-Rod, a sure shot Rotisserie Hall of Famer (Steroids don’t count against you it Fantasy baseball) has a career OPB of .389. That’s not too shabby company to be in if you ask me.
With approx ¼ of the 2009 season completed, let’s look where he stacks up this year in stats that affect you roto team.
HR’s 14-Tied 4th
Runs 25-Tied 14th
RBI 39- Tied 7th
BA .277 (not bad for those power #’s)
That’s pretty good production for a guy that you can get relatively cheaply. He plays on an awful team and there is a stigma that his strikeouts and low BA will hurt you which is just not the case. In fact, when one takes into account that he averages approximately 100 at bats less than many full-time 1st half of the order hitters (because of all his walks), the fact that he’s not a .300 hitter isn’t as problematic for your team as you might think because it has less effect on your teams average than the guys who are getting well over 650 AB’s.
If you have the big guy on your roster, he should be in your line-up every night. If you don’t have him you should try to trade for him. You’ll probably be surprised at how little you would have to give up to get him. - James Morrison
Jim (no relation to the dead Door’s guy) is a self proclaimed rotisserie expert. Jim has been participating in an serious Ultra-Rotisserie league (you can protect some minor leaguers too) at $2,600 per team instead of $260 (similar to Ultimate Franchise Baseball ™) for the past 17 years and has finished in the money 14 times with 8 First place finishes and over $260,000 in total winnings over the 17 year period. While the world is full of institutions and people that come with disclaimers on how past performance is no guarantee of future results, Jim is brazen enough to claim that it will be in your best interest to follow his advice going forward. He’ll write it, we’ll publish it and we shall see………
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