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Yes, I will continue to call Brandon Allen a fantasy sleeper every year until he breaks out.  I will also continue to say his name sounds like a furniture store.  I’m just having a hard time writing off this mollywhooping, two-hundred and thirty-five pound behemoth that had an OBP of .405 in Triple-A last year.  The OBP won’t translate into a great average; he’s more in the Adam Dunn mold.  He strikes out, walks and hits homers.  There’s even a few surprising steals in his game.  That sounds downright donkeyish!  No wonder I like him.  Since he’ll already be 25 when the 2011 season opens, the D-Backs have to give him his shot soon.  They just gotta, man.  Seriously, please don’t play Parra or Nady over him.  In Triple-A last year, he had 25 homers, 14 steals and a .405 OBP.  If that doesn’t get your blood flowing, check your pulse.  You might be dead.  So what can we expect of Brandon Allen for 2011 fantasy baseball and what makes him a sleeper?

Expect nothing.  That’s always a good way to start.  At least that’s what I tell the ladies.  If the Diamondbacks give Allen 500 ABs, which I do think they will, Allen will get 25 homers and a few steals.  That’s the baseline.  When you hear the baseline and see his average draft position, you nod your head.  Or maybe that’s bassline.  You know when your leaguemates start to leave the draft because they promised their wife they’d go to Hometown Buffet for their 30th anniversary?  I.e, the last rounds of the draft that some people invariably autodraft.  That’s when you’re taking Allen.  He might not give you anything, but it doesn’t matter.  You can drop your last draft pick before Opening Day without any of that pesky guilt.  You’re drafting him because his upside is, say, Carlos Quentin.