The Moment of Zen:
I am learning that we are sometimes mercilessly hard on ourselves. Even the most talented, impactful people I know seem to have a hard time with others giving them compliments, and they are also quick to point out their own shortcomings. Part of this, I suppose, is that our culture also tends to expect humility (which I think is a good thing, by the way). For these incredibly talented folks, it’s an expression of humility not to go talk about their own greatness all the time. And if that were the reason for deflecting the praise and being open about shortcomings, OK. No harm, no foul.
But it seems to me that most of these really smart, impactful people might actually believe in their shortcomings more than they believe in their abilities. That certainly has always been true for me: whatever awareness I might have of things I do well pales in comparison to my frustration, maybe even embarrassment and shame, over what I don’t think I do well. Maybe that’s just a me problem, but I suspect it’s one lots of us struggle with.
Another issue that rears its ugly head is our ability to be critical of others. Especially in our online personalities, it’s easy to find ourselves pointing out why others are bad or failures. I wonder if perhaps the criticism of others we find ourselves engaged in is really just us masking criticism of ourselves that we actually believe, but want to avoid feeling or dealing with. We, as humans, are complex. Of that, there is no doubt. I also think we are better than we sometimes accept of ourselves. And sometimes, we’re better than we actually allow ourselves to be to others.
One thing Zen emphasizes is honesty with oneself: which means being realistic – and even courageous, if need be – enough to note what we ourselves fail to do well, but also what we actually succeed in doing well. And part of that process is developing an awareness of when we project our struggles with either (or both) onto others. The work isn’t easy, but it can be really good and helpful.
How in the world does this apply to fantasy baseball?
In our baseball fandom (and especially in fantasy), we often turn our critical side against players, finding the parts of their games they may not excel at. We might even say things like, “Oh, that player is awful.” Umm, that player is in the majors. Not only is he not awful – he’s beyond good.
We also sometimes decide that only players who can provide the right types of stats are good. We like homers. But then, Luis Arraez is pretty incredible too despite his lack of power. Perhaps, we all need regular reminders to enjoy the amazing skills of professional athletes, not just the stats that wow us the most, but the “glue” stats that can really help both baseball teams and fantasy teams. Here’s a player who provides exactly those types of stats:
If you’re looking for a future power source (you know, the “wow” stats), Cole Carrigg probably isn’t your guy. But he is quietly providing pretty much everything else.
Carrigg is quite an athlete – back in my day (when dinosaurs roamed the earth and we walked uphill to school both ways), similar players would be referred to as “toolsy.” He can run, he can hit, he can sneak in some power due as much to his bat speed and launch angle as anything related to his exit velocity, and he can play the field. He also has a cannon for an arm.
Some of the above tools translate to fantasy, but they all translate to baseball. For instance, as a fielder, he’s currently rating well above the 50th percentile in both range and arm value (though he doesn’t have enough reps this season to qualify for an official rank). In terms of arm strength, whoa! He’s 99th percentile. And he can regularly play either CF or SS, both positions of potential need for the Rockies. He is the presumed everyday centerfield for Colorado, and as Ezequiel Tovar continues to struggle mightily, Carrigg is a risk to start taking more and more reps at shortstop. This means that Carrigg is in the lineup all of the time. He hasn’t had a full day off since July 19th. Otherwise, he’s played 28 straight games (July 20th through Aug 22nd), with 26 of those being starts and complete games.
What does this mean for fantasy? At bats. He’s getting a ton of them, especially as he’s recently been hitting top 3 in the batting order: In those 28 straight team games he’s played, he’s received 115 PA in roughly one full month of games, making a 650 PA year-long pace (which is how I like to extrapolate for season-long numbers) look completely reasonable.
Also in terms of fantasy, this guy just fills categories. In 240 MLB plate appearances in 2026, Carrigg is hitting .278 with 5 HR, 35 R, 34 RBI, and 7 SB. Those numbers may not initially look like fantasy manna from heaven, but peer a little deeper. He has 17 doubles, 3 triples, and has 26 BB (for a solid 10.8% BB%) while striking out a reasonable (for this day-and-age) 51 times (a just fine, if not good, 21.3% K%). His OBP is a very impressive .364 – he gets on base a lot. Even with him getting off to a slow go in August (in terms of runs scored and RBI), he’s provided 4 SB. And in the 28 straight team games he’s played, he’s hitting .276 with a 10.4% BB% (for a .365 OBP), only a 21.7% K%, 1 HR, 9 R, 11 RBI, and 5 SB. This guy finds a way to get stats.
And when you see his numbers extrapolated to 650 PA, the impact on the number of runs and RBI he can provide becomes much clearer: his pace if maintained over 650 PA would come out to 14 HR, 95 R, 92 RBI, and 19 SB. And in a points league, his walks, doubles and triples are a gold mine.
All this and Carrigg is widely available in leagues like ESPN (16.7% rostership) and Yahoo (22% rostership), and he can even be found in 20+% of CBS and Fantrax leagues. Considering Carrigg’s point league appeal, his ESPN rostership seems unforgivably low (though, to be fair, ESPN does usually have really shallow rosters because of lack of bench players). I suspect there are many fantasy teams out there (on just about every site) that could use the stats Carrigg readily provides.
“Glue” players like Carrigg can be an essential part of a good fantasy team. But maybe more importantly, the act of appreciating the extraordinary nature of a player’s “glueness” can help us all remember the parts of ourselves that might just be quite extraordinarily glue-like. We all have them – let’s hope we can celebrate them.
Until next week. –ADHamley
