Sure, you can consider Devon Travis injury prone. You can also consider Rob Kardashian the hot Kardashian. This is no sweat off me. Labeling any player under 27 years old injury prone is a mistake, which is different than Ruth Chris, she’s Ms. Steak. I’ve been guilty of labeling players injury prone in the past. For years, I called Ian Kinsler injury prone because up until the age of 26 he missed around forty games a year for three straight seasons. Now, Kinsler has three straight seasons of 150+ games and in five of the past six seasons. I did the same thing to Nelson Cruz. In his first few seasons, he averaged about 108 games a season. He now has three straight years of 152+ games. I also think Nelson Cruz was only injury prone when he was Nelson Cruz Jr. No idea if the weight of his pops’ shadow played into this. Not all players are injury prone across their entire careers like Glass Chipper. Devon Travis had one major injury in 2015, a shoulder injury. He returned from that injury and hit for power and average (11 HRs, .300 in 101 games). He’s had the usual nicks and bruises here and there, he’s even dealing with a knee thing right now which should be fine by February, but one injury does not make an injury-prone player. I guess you can consider him injury prone, but if you believe his shoulder is all good to go now, there’s no injury, there’s just prone, and I’m prone to like that. There’s no reason to think Travis won’t play 150+ games this year. In 163 major league games across two seasons, Devon Travis has a stat line of 92/19/85/.301/7. Now, we’re talking my language. So, what can we expect from Devon Travis for 2017 fantasy baseball and what makes him a sleeper?
92/19/85/.301/7. Cust playin’. But that has to factor in, doesn’t it? I actually think we might be able to expect more. Assuming his knee is fine, and by all reports I’ve seen it will be, seven steals over a season will be low. He’s not a speedster by any stretch. He’s one of those sneaky, pick-your-spots, base stealers. The kind that could get 12-15 steals. The kind that should get that many steals. Hit and run plays alone and he should get more than eight steals, throw in a few vs. poor pitchers and catchers and he gets a few more. Chuck in the Jays won’t be offensively as good so they may need to run more and you get more steals — are we up to 45 steals on the year for Travis yet? Okay, okay, I’m not saying he’ll get 20 steals, but 7 steals is nothing. Then, his power. Last year, he hit fly balls 34% of the time. His homers/fly balls is roughly 11%. So, quick math tells us he’ll hit about 175 fly balls and 19.25 of them will go for home runs. So, 19 homers and a single that travels 425 feet. 19 HRs, 12 SBs, .300 average. You know who I’m describing? The AM/PM mascot, Toomgis? No! I’m not describing that. I’m describing Xander Bogaerts but hitting leadoff instead of third. Intrigued yet? Yeah, I thought you would be. Travis is likely more of a .280 hitter than .310, but he has hit .300 in his career. Conservatively, for 2017, I’ll give you Devon Travis’ projections at 91/19/64/.285/10 in 578 ABs with chance for even some upside from there. Toomgis out.
