Nolan Reimold, 2010 Fantasy Sleeper
January 19, 2010
Category: 2010 Fantasy Baseball Sleeper
From when he was called up in May until he went down with an Achilles injury in mid-September, Nolan Reimold was having a standout rookie campaign. In 358 ABs, he had a line of 49/15/45/.279/8, slashing .279/.365/.466. Some days he hit for power, some days he stole bases, some days he was Fred Savage… Oh, wait, that’s his brother, Judge. None of the numbers Reimold put up in his first season strike me as being fluky. As of November, Reimold’s Achilles tendon was pain-free; he should be good to go for the start of spring training. So what can we expect for him this year and why is Nolan Reimold a 2010 fantasy baseball sleeper?
Thanks for the lead-in, Intro Paragraph, you sure live up to your name while asking the tough questions. For the answer and in an effort to appeal to a younger demographic, let’s blow some dust off this yellow-stained draft sheet and remove my monocle. According to Mock Draft Central, Reimold is being drafted about 140 spots after Hunter Pence. I do like Pence, but he’s that different from Reimold? Rhetorical! Reimold’s walk rate blows Pence’s out of the water at 11.6%. A .370 OBP doesn’t seem to be that far of a reach for Reimold in twenty-ten. I’m chirping about walks because a young player that can get on base with the free pass is a safer bet. For instance, let’s look at his worst month last year, August. Reimold hit .228 with only 2 homers. But it was also his highest month for the free pass at 15 and turned into his highest month for Runs with 13. As the old adage that was ignored for a 100 years of baseball goes, if a guy gets on base, something is bound to happen. Aside from walks, Reimold has slight speed and the aforementioned power. I wouldn’t be surprised if he grows into a Berkman-type in the next two years. 22 homers with 5 steals is the floor and definitely someone I’m targeting in all my drafts. For our Latino readers, id est, Reimold’s a 2010 fantasy baseball sleeper.
January 19th, 2010 at 11:07 am
Ever since you mentioned a while back in the comments that you liked him I did a little research and he’s definitely worth it. Reimold and Borbon are definitely my last two targeted OF in all drafts.
Is it a coincidence that I started to like them even more after you did two sleeper posts on them?
I THINK NOT!
keep ‘em coming Grey, these guys are all gold!
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@Eddy: Ha, cool. Glad you’re enjoying the posts.
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January 19th, 2010 at 11:25 am
@Grey:
How many baseball leagues do you take part in every year?
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January 19th, 2010 at 11:26 am
@Grey: You see him as a 5th OF/Util guy? Or a little better than that?
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January 19th, 2010 at 11:35 am
I love targeting guys like this late. I don’t hear Franklin Gutierrez getting much love. for some reason i like him and can see him popping 18-20 hrs and stealing 20. thoughts?
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January 19th, 2010 at 11:47 am
1) How do you see his playing time shaking out? The O’s have good OF depth.
2) Do you think he will be more of a DH than an OF? (This matters in my league.) I believe Pie is a superior fielder.
Thanks.
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January 19th, 2010 at 11:49 am
3) Reimold > La Porta?
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@Eddy: Maybe 4 or 5.
@Steve: Around there, maybe 4th outfielder.
@Antrim Warriors: He’s not getting much love because he’s more of a 17/17 guy going on a 14/14 guy.
@aj: Pie is a better fielder, but I don’t think he’s more than a 4th outfielder for the O’s.
@aj: Yup
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January 19th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
In a 15-team league, Reimold is definitely a mid-teen guy on my radar.
Have the 6th pick, and am thinking Tex (park, A-Rod protection, if he hits in April/May could be good for 40-135), but at a total loss as to who to take coming back. if Sizemore is there at #24, i think i will grab him. who else should i be targeting at that spot, assuming i take Tex or another 1B at #6. Thanks as usual!
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@Panti Jose: Sizemore would be fine, maybe Zimmerman or Youk or Rollins… Depends on how you want to build your team.
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January 19th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
@Grey: Is there a Razzball commenter league?
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January 19th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
Zimm and Youk not too early in the second? Enough power there to offset complete lack of speed with first two picks? As some have said in previous posts, the 2nd round to me is a total nightmare.
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January 19th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
@Asdrubal Bastardo: Lot of em. Opening late February I believe.
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January 19th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
@Steve: Cool I’m in! I have my main league with my buddies and I always try and join random public ESPN leagues, but there are usually only 2 other active teams. So I swoop on all the FAs and win the leagues, but what fun is that?!
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January 19th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
@Steve: hows the new place steve?
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January 19th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Grey, do you have a projection for him? If so I missed it. And would love to see one.
I agree that Reimold is not going to get booted from the OF. And if, for whatever reason Pie does take over, Pie is such a post-hype guy that you can probably be the first to pick him up if you’re watching the situation.
As far as guys like Reimold, I’d suggest Nate Schierholtz as a comparable NL guy, although because of his home ballpark and surrounding line up worth a bit less.
Chone, James, and Marcel are remarkably close on him (within a few points on the slash stats) with Chone in the middle at .288/.325/.457 with a Speed Score of 5.2. (Reimold is .275/.355/.477 with Chone and a Speed Score of 4.0) And I think that slash line is a bit low and I agree with the Shandler bunch that he’s a guy that performs better if he plays every day.
AND he’s half a year younger, and bats left.
So I’m really thinking of doing a strategy in my 12 5×5 keeper (keep 5 price goes up by $5, $260 salary) of an OF of having the first three OF be keepers of: 1. Crawford ($17) Nyjer ($6) 3. Borbon ($6, that is, if I can trade Ian Stewart to a leaguemate for Borbon) And then drafting for $1-5 4. Reimold 5. Schierholtz.
All of those guys other than Nyjer are good +AVG plays, and everyone but Crawford has upside for both this year and next.
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January 19th, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Oh, just saw this on the side bar of fangraphs:
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
News: Reimold is still bothered by the Achilles on which he had surgery at the end of the season and he may not be 100% when camp begins, MASN Sports reports.
Analysis: Reimold hasn’t taken a sprint this entire offseason and it is a worry when it takes this long for an injury to recover. He should be the starter in left field, but missing time could open the door for Felix Pie or Lou Montanez if either impresses in spring training.
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@Panti Jose: Not too early depending on who’s been taken.
@Josh: I’m not a big fan of Schierholtz, but otherwise that outfield would work. Didn’t see that on the Achilles but he’s still a flier worth taking.
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January 19th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Grey, any particular reason that you are done on Schierholtz?
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January 19th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
@Grey: what about matsuzaka as a late sleeper
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@AL KOHOLIC: Who, Dice K? Eh. Guess depends how late.
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@Josh: In 500 ABs, he hasn’t done much of anything to gamble on in a 12 team league. Seems like a waiver wire grab unless you have a deep bench.
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January 19th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
Grey what about Elijah dukes I think he could be a steal late in the draft especially when guys are taking scrubs like Vernon wells what’s your thoughts on dukes?
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January 19th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
I know you’ve probably answered this, but here’s the question.
Will you and Rudy be giving us your”risky pitchers” article this year? I found it so interesting last year. In fact, some other site linked to that article last year and I found your website for the first time. I think I stood up at my cubicle and yelled “F the Verducci effect, this shizz is fo real!” Things got awkward at work that day. I’ve come to this site about ten million times since.
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January 19th, 2010 at 2:38 pm
@Tom: Almost certain that Rudy will unveil this again. Some folks (fantasypros911) only looked at inning spikes, but I think that Rudy’s methodology is stronger by considering how many more pitches were thrown and how many of those pitches were arm-ruining breaking balls. Wouldn’t be terribly difficult to do it yourself if you couldn’t live without it. All of the information that you need is on Baseball Reference and the parameters are in last year’s article…
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January 19th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Just saw that the surgery Beltran got was a knee microfracture surgery. My wife received the same surgery recently and let me tell you the typical recovery is rough. Usually it is 8 weeks non-weight bearing followed by 3-6 months of physical therapy to get back to speed. I would not be surprised if Beltran is out til June and not 100% til after the all-star break.
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January 19th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
I tried an online translater for ¨id est¨ (for the latino readers you mentioned) but couldn´t find anything for either word… can you give us NONlatino readers a hint? By the way you got a good thing going here !
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@Mikey boy324: I hate Wells, and I think Dukes is a decent late flier. More on him to come.
@Tom: Ha! Yeah, Rudy’s working on it.
@Cain’s Fan: Is it microfracture surgery or a scope? I thought it was the latter.
@Bob: Thanks! Here:
http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/id%20est
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January 19th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
In a 20 team league, Reimold was a golden find last year. I was hoping that you would stay quiet on him for another month or so. Oh well, guess I will have to find a way to tell everyone in my league that he is terrible so he can fall to me.
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January 19th, 2010 at 5:21 pm
@Stephen: you can still do that, just talk up the fact that his Achilles is still bothering him.
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January 19th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Hey, would someone try out Couchmanagers.com. I was on and got:
“This account has been suspended.” Don’t know if I hit a bad button, or something temp wrong with the site. I can’t get it at all.
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@Simply Fred: I got the same.
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January 19th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
@Grey: Thanks for checking. Thought maybe I needed a shower.
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January 19th, 2010 at 5:49 pm
Grey, who would you prefer:
Rasmus or Reimold?
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@Eddy: Different needs. Rasmus 15/15 with a chance for more. Reimold’s floor is 22/10.
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January 19th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
@Grey:
thanks, just in time too, I read your reply two picks before my turn! Ended up going with Reimold b/c I was a bit low on power.
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January 19th, 2010 at 6:06 pm
@Grey:
Between these 3 guys who would you pick up late in the draft:
Jonathan Sanchez, Slowey, or Bailey
This would be your last SP for the draft
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@Eddy: I’ve taken Sanchez in two straight mocks, and I like the other two too. Dealer’s choice.
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January 19th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
@Josh: True, but I play with some savvy players. Either way, I love Reimold and he is one of the few players I would be comfortable drafting in the late(r) rounds and assume value from.
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January 19th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
@Grey: what do you expect from mat latos in his first full season? He was great for a period of time last yr….
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@matthole: Guy would have to be pretty bad in Petco for me not to like him. He needs to control his walks and he won’t get much offense, but he’s a decent guy to look at as a 5th starter. He’ll probably be on waivers in most leagues though, which doesn’t make him bad necessarily.
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January 19th, 2010 at 10:19 pm
@Grey:
keeper league .
a guy is offering me hank blalock for jeremy guthrie .
normally , i would do this in a heart-beat , but ,
he insists that i include mickey morandini .
this is a very difficult decision for me .
mickey turns 44 , this april ,
but it IS a keeper league .
thoughts ??
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@big o: Can’t get Cliff Pennington thrown in?
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January 19th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
@big o: What happended to Couchmanagers?
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January 19th, 2010 at 11:53 pm
Molina back with the Giants, Posey literally disappears in his shadow.
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January 20th, 2010 at 12:36 am
@Simply Fred: I’m guessing their popularity (being free and all) meant their servers couldn’t handle the traffic and they maxed out their bandwidth with their service provider.
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January 20th, 2010 at 12:42 am
@Steve: Do they come back, or are they eaten up by time warp?
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January 20th, 2010 at 12:43 am
@AL KOHOLIC: Sorry for delay in replying. New place is great – working out really well.
Now on a week’s vacay which is even better
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January 20th, 2010 at 12:50 am
@Simply Fred: Guessing again, but I imagine they will shift to a provider that can handle their traffic, with a commercial arrangement that allows them to continue offering the service as they currently do – id est, free.
Either that or they start charging. Wait and see, I guess.
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January 20th, 2010 at 12:52 am
@Bob: You probably know already, but i.e. is short for id est.
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January 20th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
@DrEasy: Molina will get 3 to 4 starts a week max if Posey starts the season in the majors. It is important to remember that Posey skipped Double-A last year and it wouldn’t be the end of the world for him to spend the early part of the season back at Triple-A. Also, it is a money saving move for Posey to stay in the minors until June too.
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January 20th, 2010 at 1:46 pm
In a minor league game that feature a David Price vs. Matt Wieters duel, Reimold stole the show, shelling Price for 2 HR. I had Price on my fantasy bench so it was fun to heckle Price when the crowd was silent after I realized his complete lack of control…
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January 20th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
@ Grey: Microfracture surgery is done by a scope these days. Recovery is still the same length.
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@capizzi: Interesting, thanks for sharing!
@Cain’s Fan: Cool, thanks!
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January 20th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Great article on Aroldis Chapman and Dusty Baker. Thought someone here might enjoy it.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/dusty_baker_destroys
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@vinko: Ha!
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January 23rd, 2010 at 12:08 am
Reimold>Juan Rivera?
Thanks
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@melvin: Yup
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