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Prior to landing on Danny Espinosa in this 2011 rookie series, I almost wrote about Brandon Belt, but I need to see exactly where Belt straps into the lineup.  (See what I did there? Yeah, I’m not sure either. (Oh, and I may still write about Belt if the Giants commit to him.))  Here’s what I said earlier this year about Espinosa, “Let’s go over the Danny Espinosa positives first.  A) In Triple-A, he had 18 homers and 20 steals.  B) At MI, you need another positive after A? C) B was already forced and you want a C? D) Hmm… You need another positive, huh?  Umm… How about D. Espinosa anagrams to Adios ESPN?  Okay, the negative is the 94 Ks in 99 games at Triple-A.  That sounds like a recipe for a .230 average over the course of the season.”  And that’s me quoting me!  That pretty much sums up what he showed us in 2010 in the minors and majors.  Power, speed and a whole lot of strikeouts.  So what can we expect of Danny Espinosa for 2011 fantasy baseball?

The sample size isn’t huge but from September 7th until October 3rd, Espinosa hit .149.  That was his last 87 ABs of 2010.  Otherwise known as 28 Ks in 22 games.  If he does that in April of 2011, you’re going to drop him or the Nats will.  For 2011, I’ll give him the line of 60/15/70/.245/17.  For a end of the draft flier, I like him.  There’s no reason to not take a gamble on a guy with his power and speed upside.  He will probably be one of those guys that is on every team at least once throughout the year.  When cold, he’ll be on waivers.  When hot, you hope he’s on your team.  Best case scenario, you draft him towards the end of a draft, he hits 5 homers and steals a few bases in April and everyone wishes they grabbed him too.  Then you trade him to one of those suckers.  Or you hold him until he poos your bed.