Hello, friends that I’ve never met in person. I’m glad to see you again, metaphorically. I’ve already hit you with my top 20 catchers for 2015 fantasy baseball and the top 20 1st basemen for 2015 fantasy baseball. This, here, is the top 20 2nd basemen for 2015 fantasy baseball. This, here, is a mess. There’s seriously about seven 2nd basemen I’m excited about, and two of them are Brett Lawrie and Jedd Gyorko, so we know how that’s gonna play out. I don’t know what happened to the latest crop of 2nd basemen, but I have a theory. Twelve years ago, when these 2nd basemen were learning the position, their role model was Bret Boone. Boone used to frost his hair, so all the kids learning 2nd base at that time, frosted their hair too. Then their friends beat the crap out of them, and that was the end of all future 2nd basemen. Here’s the position eligibility chart for 2015 fantasy baseball. All the 2015 fantasy baseball rankings are under that linkie-ma-whosie. As always, my projections and tiers are included for the low, low price of zero dollars. Anyway, here’s the top 20 2nd basemen for 2015 fantasy baseball:
1. Anthony Rendon – Went over him in the top 10 for 2015 fantasy baseball.
2. Jose Altuve – This is a new tier. This tier goes here until Gordon. I call this tier, “David, Goliath and Gordon.” I’m not drafting anyone from this tier without them falling at least a round or two. Without the help of a 17-foot ladder last year, who would’ve guessed Altuve would reach his ceiling? His .360 BABIP alone calls for some regression. Let’s just grab a few examples of the last few years. A 2010 Austin Jackson had a .396 BABIP and he hit .293, the next year .340 BABIP and he hit .249; a 2013 Mike Trout had a .376 BABIP and hit .323; followed that up with a .349 BABIP and .287; a 2011 Michael Bourn had a .369 BABIP and hit .294 and followed that with .349 BABIP and .274. There’s hundreds of other examples. I tried to limit my examples to guys that are fast like Shorty Rock Altuve. Prior to last year, Altuve’s high was five feet, four inches– excuse me, his BABIP high was .321. If he gets a .321 BABIP again, he’s not hitting .310 let alone his .341 from last year. That’s about a $4 difference or around twenty spots in a draft. He’s not hitting homers to propel his stats. With Altuve, batting average propels his runs and RBIs. Last year, he had 20 more RBIs and the most runs of his career even though he hit 2nd in 268 ABs. If he hits .310, he’s going to lose at least ten runs and ten RBIs, likely more. That’s another $2 in fantasy value and 12 spots. Altuve’s now around a 4th rounder, and that’s assuming a .310 average, which would be his 2nd highest average by a lot (right now it’s .290). Oh, and if he’s on base less, then he’s stealing less. Or as Altuve will likely be saying this year, “But I regress…” 2015 Projections: 78/8/55/.306/39
3. Robinson Cano – With the tier name, Cano is Goliath, but that’s more in the metaphorical sense. Cano’s big in name value. I don’t completely buy into the theorem that reads, “Every hitter that steps into a stadium that ends with a ‘co’ = Doodie.” That theorem wasn’t just stumbled on by people far wiser than I (or is it me?). There were hundreds of man hours devoted by some of the brightest minds in the industry to come up with that theorem, and, at the end of the day, they always came up with “Doodie.” Could it have been all the Triscuits they were snacking on? I suppose, but there’s got to be some merit to it. Cano’s average home run distance in 2013 was 399; last year it was 375. Move to a tougher park and hit the ball shorter distances won’t portend to great things. Also, I won’t portend to know what portend means. Usually when a hitter gets to around 32 years old (Cano’s age) and their home run distance falls, it’s not a good sign for obvious reasons. They can’t hit the ball as far, dur! Cano’s likely not as bad as he was last year, but I wouldn’t bet on a huge bounce back either. 2015 Projections: 82/19/92/.305/7
4. Dee Gordon – Here’s what I said this offseason, “Gordon was traded to the Marlins for Andrew Heaney. The Marlins are the guy in your league that makes asinine trades with other teams in your league and you really want to kick them out of your league, except you secretly hope they make an idiotic trade with you at some point. You almost get the sense that the Marlins are the one organization that still doesn’t use sabermetrics. Gordon has overrated for 2015 written all over him and he moves my pants in a non-aroused way. Last year, he hit .289 with a .346 BABIP. That BABIP isn’t totally absurd for a fast player, though his career mark is .326. His batted ball profile reads like your standard worm-killing speedster. Chop, chop, run, Dee, chop, chop, run!” And that’s me quoting me! 2015 Projections: 86/1/29/.263/55
5. Brian Dozier – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Kinsler. I call this tier, “The Wishy-Washy cycle.” What I mean by the tier name is I’m likely not drafting guys from this tier, but I could see it if they fall far enough. I’m just not a huge fan of drafting middle infielders early. I usually draft one shortstop or 2nd baseman prior to the 100th overall pick and not both. So, if I have, say, Rendon or Ian Desmond, I won’t be drafting anyone from here. As for Dozier, I flip-flopped Kipnis and Dozier in the rankings more times than I care to admit (47 times). They seem like essentially the same player. Dozier has a bit more power, Kipnis has a tad more speed; Dozier has a tad less average, Kipnis has a tad more, I don’t know, Jason se quoi. Since I prefer power to speed, I went with this ranking order. I could see reversing it if you’re reading this while standing on your head. 2015 Projections: 89/19/67/.246/15
6. Jason Kipnis – Last year, Kipnis was hideous. Like bad bad, not bad as in good. Kipnis looked about as appetizing as the Jewish delicatessen delicacy that he sounds like he’s named after. Kipnis with a side of oy. If he were dirt old, I’d write him off as done. He’ll be 28 in April. That’s hardly old, as in “Is that old? Hardly har har.” Last year, he injured himself at the end of April and seemed to never get right again. He had a 4.8% HR/FB with nearly the same amount of fly balls and he actually hit home runs further in 2014 than 2013, even though he produced 11 less homers. (His overall fly ball distance did fall.) He still stole 22 bases in 25 attempts. His splits are ugly, but I don’t think the Indians will drop him into a platoon unless his April and May look like last year, which they shouldn’t. I’m willing to throw out 2014 like it never happened. Though, I’m not sure if I should throw it out in the black, blue or green trash can. When did we get so many trash cans?! 2015 Projections: 81/15/70/.261/24
7. Ian Kinsler – You know when you go to a restaurant and they forget to charge you for an item and you feel like you got over on them? That’s how I felt last year with Kinsler. I owned him last year and feel like I forgot to get charged for a 15-day DL. I’m concerned if I go back in on Kinsler, I’m gonna have to pay twice because I got off easy last year. Is this all confirmation bias and conjecture and anecdotal? Yeah, what are you gonna do, report me to the Fantasy Baseball authorities? 2015 Projections: 83/15/77/.269/15
8. Kolten Wong – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Gyorko. I call this tier, “I’m going to illustrate how I’m drafting these guys by moving a sugar packet down your thigh.” All the guys in this tier I’m willing to take a shot on within reason, i.e., me likey likey long time. I already went over my Kolten Wong sleeper. I wrote it during a Cutthroat Kitchen marathon. 2015 Projections: 84/18/60/.278/24
9. Jedd Gyorko – I already went over my Jedd Gyorko sleeper. I wrote it after losing my Post-It note where I jotted down, “Don’t get fooled by Gyorko again.” 2015 Projections: 66/24/69/.246/3
10. Dustin Pedroia – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Murphy. I call this tier, “You’ll make it to about April 20th with your 2nd baseman.” The guys in this tier all give their owners the feeling that they went with a safe choice. I guarantee you someone will explain their drafting of one of these guys in this fashion, “I went upside heavy in the outfield, so I decided to go safe with my 2nd baseman. Oh, and say hello to your mother for me.” Yeah, that never works out. You think you’ve drafted safe, but really you’ve drafted a boring guy that you want to drop by the third week of the season. To give you a big picture glance, we’re after 100 overall in the rankings. I’ll likely place these guys around 105-115 and just draft a pitcher during the time when these guys should be drafted. If I’ve gotten this deep without one 2nd baseman, then I’ll show my alligator blood and check raise to the bettor until a young sleeper-type (the next tier) comes up on my draft sheet. If I have a 2nd baseman by this point (please, Wong, please), then I will ignore this tier simply because I don’t need one. As for Pedroia, his grit, determination and stick-to-itiveness are terrific. If only I played in leagues with grit, determination and stick-to-itiveness categories. 2015 Projections: 84/11/66/.291/13
11. Neil Walker – Fun fact! Neil Walker was friends in high school with a guy named Stan Up. Less fun fact! I’m not a fan of Walker. He’s remarkably consistent in how boring he is. Two years in a row with a 15.4% K-rate, his career average is .273 and last year he hit .271, his fly ball rate the last two years is 38.5% and 38.9% and he’s played 129, 133 and 137 games in the last three years. Only thing that changed last year is he hit 7 more homers than any other pro season, which seems unlikely to be repeated. 2015 Projections: 72/17/77/.270/2
12. Howie Kendrick – Here’s what I said this offseason, “The Dodgers are incapable of owning or playing highly touted prospects (“Tell me about it,” says Joc Pederson), so they grabbed Heaney and then immediately flipped him for Kendrick. There is now one hitter in their lineup under the age of 30 (Puig). And I thought LA was an ageist city. Oh, wait, that’s only for women. Whew! Kendrick is one of those players that hits essentially the same no matter where he is. Almost eerily so: 13 homers at home, 15 in away games in the last three years; .288 at home, .297 in away games. So, I don’t expect much more from him on the Dodgers or much less. He should leave his house about 45 minutes earlier for home games since traffic in Los Angeles Los Angeles is a lot worse than Los Angeles Anaheim.” And that’s me copying and pasting me! 2015 Projections: 77/11/81/.288/12
13. Daniel Murphy – Murphy feels like a throwback player to a yesteryear from a bygone era when fantasy baseball meant believing the fantasy that Mickey Mantle wasn’t drunk when he’d go up to bat. A simpler time, indeed. Ask Billy Crystal, he’ll be more than happy to tell you about it. In that spirit, I’ll keep it simple and say you don’t want to draft a 10 HR, 10 steal guy unless he’s getting 110 runs, 100 RBIs or a .315+ average. 2015 Projections: 82/10/58/.284/10
14. Mookie Betts – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Lawrie. I call this tier, “Ghosts of Sleepers Past, Present and Future.” I want Mookie’s PR person. Literally every day for the last two months at least once a day someone asked what I thought of Betts for this year. Don’t look around, you probably asked me at one point. I wonder if it has something to do with his name. It’s just such a baseball-sounding name. Have you ever met a none baseball-playing Mookie? I continued to tell them, Betts doesn’t have a job. Pedroia’s at 2nd base and the outfield is Hanley, Victorino and Rusney. Then John Farrell called me a liar and went on record saying Betts is his leadoff hitter. Where’s he playing? *shrugs* I have no idea. It’s gotta mean Victorino is a bench bat, and maybe Rusney and Betts will sit occasionally to get Victorino into the lineup. I could see anywhere from a top 5 2nd baseman season for Mookie to a platoon player that the Sawx decide to demote to the minors so he can get everyday at-bats. Maybe Victorino or Pedroia will get injured to make this clearer, but right now drafting Betts will be a huge gamble. Pun point! 2015 Projections: 68/9/37/.292/18
15. Scooter Gennett – The only surprising thing here is I haven’t written a sleeper post yet for Scooter. Let’s fix that, shall we? *drops my stylus and kisses my Cougar* And done! Oh, shoot, I just kissed my stylus and dropped my Cougar. Oh, well. Scooter comes from a long line of no walkie, like to swingie middle infielders. It seems like starting at Altuve every middle infielder suffers from this. Scooter does have some power, speed, and he’s only 24 years old. He feels a little like a guy that won’t breakout until 2016, but he’s worth the gamble. No whammy, no whammy, whammy! Dah! 2015 Projections: 67/14/73/.271/8
16. Chris Owings – Went over him in the top 20 shortstops for 2015 fantasy baseball.
17. Rougned Odor – In Single-A, he hit 10 homers and stole 19 bases at the age of 18. Last year, at 20 years old, he hit 9 homers and stole 4 bases. What does that mean? Like Scooter, Odor is prolly a sleeper of the future. In 2016, he’ll be a 15 HRs, 30 SBs guy. For 2015, that leaves us scratching ourselves and wondering what to make of the Odor. 2015 Projections: 58/13/65/.249/16
18. Brett Lawrie – This offseason, I said, “When this post-post-post-post-post-POST-post-hype prospect comes to Oakland, will U.S. customs let Lawrie bring all his posts? I went to check on TSA’s website, but to search the site, I had to remove my shoes and my feet got cold. The A’s could get a breakout star in Lawrie; he did have 18 homers and 13 steals in only 69 games in Triple-A when he was merely 21 years old. He’s still only 24, there’s time. Can’t project what a player could do in the best case scenario though. Oh, and for those of you worried, Lawrie can play behind the plate too, so the A’s still have six catchers.” And that’s– Well, you know. 2015 Projections: 54/14/62/.267/6
19. Chase Utley – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Phillips. I call this tier, “And you thought the Pedroia tier was old and/or boring!” In 2009, Chase Utley was named the sixth best baseball player in the sport by Sporting News. Yeah, and Ryan Howard hit 45 homers in 2009 and Ichiro hit .352. For those of you that like to say, “Grey, awesome mustachio, I’d like to touch it. Now, one small question, Utley’s projections look better than Lawrie, but you have Lawrie ranked prior. What gives, Ke-mo Sah-bee?” At this point in the draft, it’s worth going for the upside rather than the standard boring production of a vet. 2015 Projections: 66/10/69/.263/10
20. Ben Zobrist – Was traded to the A’s. Beane does it again! What “it” is? I’m not entirely sure. I’m guessing Beane just got Zobrist because of his ability to play many positions. For so many years, I didn’t trust Zobrist and he put up solid stats. Now, he looks virtually washed up and I finally trust him. If you don’t take anything else away from Zobrist, stop thinking about tomorrow and start living for today. In other words, on my death bed, I whisper Zobrist and then a news reporter interviews everyone close to me, researching what I meant, only to find out my childhood sled was named Zobrist. 2015 Projections: 77/12/49/.268/10
21. Asdrubal Cabrera – The battle outside is ragin’…. It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls… For the times for The Drubal are a-changin’! That was a remix sung recently by Art Garfunkel at the Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa in the Chief Tom Fearweather Concert Hall. Garfunkel hasn’t been more relevant since he first afro’d out his hair, which led African-American radicals in the 70’s to follow his lead. With Asdrubal on the Rays, he goes from a top offensive team to one of the worst, but he also becomes less of a liability and more of an asset, which makes the move essentially a push. I.e., he went from a team where he might get platooned or bat eighth to a team where he’s guaranteed playing time and to bat in the middle of the order. That doesn’t stop Drubal from being a guy that has put up 14 HRs, 10 SBs, .241 and 14 HRs, 9 SBs and .242 the past two years. Consistently, bleh. 2015 Projections: 67/15/63/.246/11
22. Josh Harrison – Last year, he had 13 homers. Going into last year, he needed his previous three years combined to reach 13 homers total, and that’s including stints in the minors. He does have speed, so his last year’s 18 steals mark wasn’t that out there. His .315 average though was his best in the majors by about forty points. What I think will happen is Harrison will struggle to hit as well again and fall into a platoon. When that happens I will say I told you that in January, and that I’m number one and the rest are ptooey! Or something along those lines. 2015 Projections: 71/7/57/.267/17
23. Brandon Phillips – He hit 8 homers and stole two bases last year. How many games do you think he played? One? That’s the worst guess in the history of guesses. C’mon! Guess for real. How many games? 2,988?! What? How do you guess that? He played in 121 games. Yeah, 8 homers and 2 steals in 121 games is, how do they say in Italian-American? Notta-so-good. 2015 Projections: 64/10/67/.251/3
24. Marcus Semien – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Solarte. I call this tier, “If you’ve waited this long, you may as well go upside.” I’m a firm believer in going for upside late. Could Semien end up getting dropped (ewwww) before the season even starts for a guy who looks like he’s breaking out in Spring Training? Sure, but he’s still worth the flyer. As for Semien, here’s what I said this offseason, “Let the Semien to A’s jokes in the Castro commence. I figured Beane was going with a seven catchers, six 1st basemen lineup, but I guess he needed a roving middle infielder. Steamer loves Semien (hehe) with the projections of 16 HRs and 9 SBs. If Semien pulls that one off (oh, stop being juvenile), he could be a huge sleeper. I think 16 HRs might be expecting a bit much and he might only hit .220. Will be nice to see Semien finally get a shot (okay, I give up fighting the double entendres).” And that’s me pleasuring you with Semien! 2015 Projections: 66/13/61/.228/10
25. Jace Peterson – Here’s what I said this offseason, “Went to the Braves. Wanna know what the Braves are doing this offseason? Come sit next to me and I’ll tell you. They’re punting offense. I have no idea why. Maybe it’s like when someone vomits in your car and you can’t get rid of the smell so you drive the car off a cliff for an insurance claim. Not sure. Right now, Peterson doesn’t have a starting job, but I like him a ton more than Alberto Callaspo, so I’m watching him like a cyclops with a monocle in spring.” And that’s me quoting me! 2015 Projections: 67/4/44/.262/25
26. Devon Travis – With the injury to Maicer, there’s a chance Travis gets the job. With great opportunity comes great yadda yadda, I don’t know Star Wars dork, you tell me. Here’s what I said about Travis this offseason, “He’s only going to be 24 years old in 2015, but for the Blue Jays that’s hella old. They be promoting bros on the reg. Damn, I tried drop as many outdated phrases as I could, but I came up a bit short. Better luck next time, Grey! And stop talking in the third person you sound like a dope! On the fo’really, the Jays promote prospects aggressively and have Maicer Izturis plugged into 2nd base right now. Someone on the Jays is going to pull a De Niro this offseason and tell Maicer to go check out the furs down an alleyway. In Double-A, Travis had 10 homers, 16 steals and .298 average. I.e., he looks like Martin Prado or Omar Infante. I.e. Part II, More I Before E, I’m not going to be a huge fan of him in the spring, but is usable in deep leagues if he’s starting.” And that’s me quoting me! 2015 Projections: 57/9/62/.262/11
27. Jonathan Schoop – I already gave you my Jonathan Schoop sleeper. I wrote it while eating Chinese food every 30 minutes until I really was full. 2015 Projections: 61/19/64/.242/4
28. Micah Johnson – 2nd base filled up in the spring, huh? Not to answer, but to ponder quietly while licking an ice cream cone. I still ahve my concerns about Micah, and whether or not he’ll actually play every day, but he does have speed, so SAGNOF! 2015 Projections: 42/4/46/.245/26
29. Joe Panik – Pretty appropriate guy to be in this last tier. You, “I don’t have a 2nd baseman yet and it’s around 250 overall and I’m really starting to freak out.” Great time for Panik. 2015 Projections: 79/6/52/.262/6
30. Brad Miller – One problem with this tier is some of these guys might be in platoons. If you think that’s the only problem with this tier, you’re cute in your naivete. Come here, let me pinch your cheeks. It’s a figure of speech, get out of here! As anyone knows that has been reading this site for an Urban Dictionary minute, I loved Miller last year. Last year, he took that love, put it in a Vitamix with a handful of kale and cilantro and had me drink it for three straight months. Now that I’ve had a few months where I haven’t been gagging every day, there’s still some promise here. The reasons why I originally liked him is due to his ability to hit 15 homers and steal 15 bases without killing you in average. That’s still possible, but the shine is obviously gone. 2015 Projections: 44/12/50/.244/6
31. Arismendy Alcantara – Arismendy’s stats from last year prorated? Boing! And I didn’t forget an R in that word, instead I made “boring” R-rated. Watch out for Jack Valenti, the Murray Chass of movies. Arismendy had 10 HRs and 8 steals in less than half a season. Yeah, that’s sexy. Of course, he would’ve struck out 200 times and hit .176, but those are quibbles, you quibbler! Unfortch, with the trade for Fowler, Arismendy the Great looks like Arismendy the Part-Timer. 2015 Projections: 47/12/56/.221/17
32. Nick Franklin – With the trade of Zobrist, Franklin should get the bulk of the at-bats in Tampa. One year in the minor leagues, he had 23 homers and 25 steals with a .281 average. Hello, beautiful stats, would you like to lie on my bear skin rug while I pour you champagne? Oh, those stats were in Single-A. Never the hoo! Franklin has hit for power and shown speed everywhere he’s played and he’s only 23 years old. Of course, he’s also shown a K-rate that could equal a .210 average. Definitely worth a flier in deeper leagues, but I wouldn’t expect a cure-all like Windex. 2015 Projections: 52/14/56/.229/8
33. Yangervis Solarte – Here’s an interesting guy. He should play every day for the Padres… Crap, I just fell asleep. What was I talking about? I think I have Petcolepsy. As soon as I think about a player hitting half his games in… I’m sorry, this is embarrassing now. Was I talking about something? 2015 Projections: 64/8/44/.267/3
34. Martin Prado – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Drew. I call this tier, “Totally serviceable, totally not exciting.” Here’s what I said this offseason on Prado, “To the Marlins where he will play 3rd base, and potentially bounce all around the field. A lot of other fantasy baseball ‘perts will tell you that Prado has great position eligibility. This is true, but I find it’s more of an annoyance with Prado, because no matter what position you’re looking at on waivers, you always have to look at Prado.” And that’s me quoting me! 2015 Projections: 58/10/67/.262/3
35. Emilio Bonifacio – Signed this offseason with the White Sox, who are all newfangled, which doesn’t mean they’re led by a recently undead Dracula — that sounds more like the Yankees. Bonifacio will likely be the nine-hole hitter and 2nd baseman, but I could see him in the outfield by June 1st, depending on how long Eaton, Melky and Avisail stay healthy. 2015 Projections: 48/2/46/.248/25
36. Omar Infante – Hispanic Baby Omar isn’t just any player, he’s HBO. Unfortch, he’s more like the Arliss HBO than the Game of Thrones one. Hodor! 2015 Projections: 59/8/65/.259/7
37. Aaron Hill – One year, he hits 26 homers, next year he hits 11 homers, one year he hits .291, next year he hits .244. Makes sense since he’s not Aaron Plateau. Unfortch, now he’s just over-the-Hill. UPDATE: Moved to the bench. 2015 Projections: 58/12/62/.240/5
38. DJ LeMahieu – The good news is he has a starting job. The bad news is he had one last year and hit 5 homers with 10 steals. And that’s the LeMahieus. 2015 Projections: 62/7/56/.262/12
39. Wilmer Flores – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until the end of the list. I call this tier, “I really wanted to talk about these players, so here we are, let’s talk.” Sandy Alderson said this offseason, “I know there are fans out there that don’t want to hear it, but if we had to go into the season with Flores as our shortstop, I’m certainly not in a panic mode at that point.” Way to give the guy a confidence boost! What he should say is, “I’m really freakin’ sorry I’ve had our fans watch Ruben Tejada for three years. In a rare moment of clarity, I now realize I am eternally dopey.” What world is he living in that the fans don’t want to see Flores? In Triple-A, Flores hit 15 homers and .321 in only 107 games. Sure, it was the PCL, but I sure as heckfire would prefer that than Tejada. I want to say I’m glad to finally see Flores play every day, but knowing Alderson he’ll coax Omar Vizquel out of retirement. 2015 Projections: 48/12/52/.277/4
40. Javier Baez – His strikeouts are extraordinarily awful. Last year, he struck out 41.5% of the time. From 1871 to 2014, no player struck out more than 40% of the time over the course of a season. And in the first thirty years of that sample, half the players were playing with cholera! Chris Carter has the worst strikeout rate in the history of baseball over the course of a season (36.2% in 2013). If you asked Baez if he knew that, he’d whiff. Of course, Baez’s K-rate wasn’t over a season; it was in 213 ABs. In 220 plate appearances, Javier Baez has the 2nd worst strikeout rate since 1871. In 1887, Candy Nelson struck out 50% of the time in 315 plate appearances. And he had to deal with diabetes — hence his name. One guy in the history of baseball was worst than Baez. One! That’s insane, in case you can’t tell from my exclamation marks. The list of hideous K-rates of the last 143 years is kinda comical: Candy, Baez, Melvin Nieves (friend of Howard Hughes?), Mike Olt, Cody Ransom (who signed autographs with cutout magazine letters), Jon Singleton, Russell Branyan, Brett Wallace and Bo Jackson. *screech* Bo Jackson is actually an interesting name from that list that I don’t think is too far off fantasy-wise. No, Javier can’t run the 100 yard dash in 2.7 seconds nor can he kill a pig with a rock. In that year when Bo struck out 36.4% of the time, he also had 22 homers and 10 steals with a .235 average. That was also his rookie year. Steamer projected Javier Baez in 2015 for 26 homers and 16 steals with a .226 average. Looks a whole lot more promising now that we’ve stopped talking about Ks, right? Baez hit 9 homers in 52 games last year, and that wasn’t fluky. If anything, it might have been low for what he’s capable of. I like him a lot, but there will be 0-for-40 stretches where he strikes out 39 times in a row. UPDATE: Sent down to start the year. In related news, the Cubs minor league affiliate will be using wind power to light their stadium. 2015 Projections: 38/12/40/.195/8
41. Alexi Amarista – In the minors one year, he stole 38 bases! *covers mouth so you can barely hear* And was caught 20 times. Yeah, but last year he was only caught once, so he must’ve figured things out. Or he figured out he can’t run that much and that’s why he only stole 12 bases last year. Never the hoo! He should be on the strong side of a Padres platoon and steal a few bases. 2015 Projections: 48/3/45/.239/16
42. Johnny Giavotella – Hey, it’s Johnny G. Fist pump! Looks to have won the starting job for the Angels. Scioscia obviously has a soft spot for Guineas. “Pfft!” says Mike Napoli. 2015 Projections: 58/6/41/.247/13
43. Josh Rutledge – Here’s what I said this offseason, “Acquired by the Angels to replace Kendrick. Sleeper alert! Shut up, 2013 Grey, you big dope! Since Rutledge has hit .230 in the last three years in away games and .287 at home, I’m guessing the Angels are going to flood their stadium with sewage and play in Coors in 2015. If they don’t flood their stadium in March with sewage, they may be flooding 2nd base with sewage in April. For 2015, assume he only plays two-thirds of the time.” And that’s me plagiarizing me! (By the by, I can never spell plagiarizing so I always have to copy it from another source.) 2015 Projections: 32/6/38/.252/6
44. Stephen Drew – Here’s what I said when Prado was traded, “Maybe it’s the decades — seriously, decades — since the Yankees put a rookie in an everyday role, but I don’t trust them to play Robert Refsnyder.” And that’s me anticipating how chickenshizz the Yankees are. I can’t believe they signed Stephen Drew. That’s a mystery for his sister, Nancy. That mystery involves the question, “Why are the Yankees incapable of going younger?” 2015 Projections: 57/7/61/.234/3
