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Allen Craig, “What’s that hot air on my neck?  It feels…humid.”  That’s Matt Adams.  The robust first baseman suffered through his worst personal month in years in November when production of Twinkies halted.  Fun Fact!  In 1999, Bill Clinton dropped a Twinkie into a time capsule that was to remain shut for 100 years.  Also, in 1999, Matt Adams dug up said time capsule, ate the Twinkie and wiped his mouth with a college letter from Bill to Hillary.  Fun fact II!  Matt Adams once misspelled his own name as Fatt Adams.  Fun Fact III!  To pay for his first car, Adams modeled for the zaftig definition illustration in the Oxford English Dictionary.  In 2011, he was named Texas League Player of the Year, but he was stuck behind Pujols.  Coincidentally, “Stuck Behind Pujols” was the Village People B-side to YMCA.  Any the hoo, Pujols got run out of town (not really, but it’s fun to say that) and Craig stepped up.  Craig has the injury history of Mr. Glass from Unbreakable.  Craig just pulled his hammy reading and reacting to that last line.  Craig could also move to the outfield, which would speed up Adams’s arrival (and would speed up Craig’s injury).  Over Adams’s career in the minor leagues, his line is .318/.365/.565 with 82 homers in 366 games. Last year, he hit 18 homers in 67 games and a .329 average, which was cut short by a call to platoon in the majors and then bone spurs in his elbow.  Since Adams eats bone spurs for breakfast (literally, I think), he’ll be ready to go this year.  So, what can we expect of Matt Adams for 2013 fantasy baseball?

He’s the best 1st baseman in the minors for fantasy.  Olt could be considered that (I just went over my Mike Olt fantasy), but he’s stuck for playing time worse than Adams and the Rangers seem more likely to platoon Olt.  Jonathan Singleton could make a case for best 1st baseman in the minors for fantasy, but he’s a year (or at least a half year) off from fantasy impact and he’s in the Astros system, and they haven’t had a top-flight prospect whose last name didn’t start with a B in 25 years.  Adams should be in the everyday lineup in the majors in April.  He won’t, though.  Bill James gave Adams a projected line of 69/27/89/.282/3.  That actually isn’t that crackers, if Adams got the 145 games and 503 ABs James is giving him.  I think Adams could actually do better with runs and average if he got 503 ABs.  I’ll go as far to say the Cards would be better with Oscar Taveras and Matt Adams over Craig and Jay.  Since we need an injury and assuming no one Gillooly’s Craig, I’ll give Adams 350 ABs and a line of 40/17/52/.293/1.  The moment it looks like Adams will be in the lineup he’ll be an immediate pickup in all leagues.