There’s playing with projection (Jurickson Profar). There’s playing with magic (Derek Jeter). Then there’s playing with zeal (Robert Refsnyder). He’s no Mookie Betts, but he’s also not nearly as blocked at second base. He also might be a better bet for some counting stats in NY than Tommy La Stella in ATL.
Robert Refsnyder showed up #6 overall on my custom AA IBS wOBA leader board. While wOBA/ISO is clouded because it’s so affected by BABIP, he’s posting a glorious ISO-Spd combo at AAA right now. Chances are that he posts second base average power numbers at best longterm, and he hasn’t made it on many top-10, even top-20 New York Yankee prospect lists, but there is short-term impact here if you’re in it for the now and need a middle-infielder. He’s already two years older than Jeter when Jeter came up, and he won’t displace him with 1/2 the value, or 1/4 of the magic, but I think he can translate.
Look at these Steamer projections prior to this year:
| Rank | Player | AB | R | HR | RBI | SB | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| 11 | Matt Carpenter | 519 | 76 | 10 | 53 | 5 | 0.284 | 0.365 | 0.422 |
| 12 | Howie Kendrick | 540 | 64 | 12 | 65 | 8 | 0.276 | 0.319 | 0.409 |
| 13 | Jurickson Profar | 528 | 68 | 13 | 62 | 12 | 0.249 | 0.321 | 0.384 |
| 14 | Chase Utley | 476 | 62 | 16 | 60 | 8 | 0.256 | 0.335 | 0.419 |
| 15 | Daniel Murphy | 535 | 62 | 9 | 55 | 11 | 0.276 | 0.317 | 0.4 |
| 16 | Omar Infante | 471 | 56 | 9 | 54 | 7 | 0.293 | 0.327 | 0.41 |
| 17 | Jed Lowrie | 482 | 62 | 13 | 60 | 2 | 0.26 | 0.325 | 0.408 |
| 18 | Neil Walker | 439 | 58 | 13 | 54 | 4 | 0.268 | 0.34 | 0.424 |
Currently, Carpenter and Kendrick are barely in the top-20, while Infante and Lowrie are no where close. Second base remains scarce and volatile. By next year, he should have more contact than Walker and Kendrick, and better ISO and Spd scores than 3/7 of this list.
If you’re in a deep dynasty league with a rate stat like SLG vs. a counting stat like HR, then there’s little reason not to roster Refsnyder over some of the above based on their cost/inflation value. The average stats from the above matrix would result in 499AB-64R-12HR-58RBI-7SB-.270AVG-.331OBP-.410SLG. I could see him out-valuing this projection, due to the SB total and BABIP inflated batting average/on-base potential. He had 22 stolen bases in 2013, 2014, albeit with inflated OBP’s.
Simply put, RRR.
Roster Robert Refsynder.
Follow Dano on Twitter @Rotobanter.
