Well this pick is a little strange. After covering guys that probably won’t get drafted in most regular leagues this year, I’ve come back to a guy going in 13th round currently in mock drafts with Kendrys Morales. I could lie to you and say I like a guy like Brandon Belt more because he’s going so cheap but until he hires a professional make-up artist that makes him look 35, he’s going to have a hard time staying on Bruce Bochy’s good side and away from Huff’s rally thong. I’m suggesting we take a look at whether or not Kendrys is a discount seeing as first base isn’t all that deep. Scoff all you want but I suggested Allen Craig to you last year when he was merely a pipe dream. Yes, that’s a picture of Jay ‘Bones’ Buhner and yes the writer calls himself ONC. Well that was me before I went Red Dragon on y’all and ‘transformed’. You see, I’m that dude Sky from the fantasy football side of the Razzball world but I cut my teeth on the baseball side by dropping helpful preseason nuggets to you last year and one of which is the aforementioned Craig. The same Craig who’s now going 7th in mock drafts over at MDC amongst first basemen. For such a power-heavy position, doesn’t 22 HRs in 514 PAs scare you a little with where he’s going? Exactly. So with that, I think it’s time we take a look at why you might be paying less for more with Morales for 2013 fantasy baseball…
Morales has had an interesting career to date. Pre-‘S’, Kendry came out of nowhere in 2009, hitting 34 HRs while batting .306 and was a draft day or waiver wire steal for anyone who got in early on him. And then ‘the leap’ happened. The fated grandslam victory lap ended with a broken ankle that ended a solid year (11 home runs in 51 games, well on pace for 30 home runs again) and what looked like ended a promising start to a career. You see, he didn’t play in 2011. That in and of itself is a nail in the fantasy coffin for most fantasy players. ‘Who’s this Adam Wainwright guy? He wasn’t in the player pool in 2011. Is he in the family business of wagon repair, my Amish neighbor could use some help. Maybe he could help him with his lights too. Is he just not paying his electricity bills?’ With all that said, the Angels slowly brought Morales back around to full time player last year and I’d say they did a fine job. He played in 134 games and hit 22 HRs in the process, garnering about 522 plate appearances. Hrm, that line sounds eerily similar to what Craig did last year. I knew there was a reason I brought him up! As it is, Grey already projected for Kendrys Morales here and I can’t say I have any huge quibbles with him but I will say this: 14 of Morales’ 22 HRs last year came in the second half and he had 4 more doubles. Though the average dipped during that stretch, the PA were nearly identical to his first half. That could be a sign of renewed health and we just might have a 30 HR season coming from Morales yet again if he can garner enough at-bats in that slugfest of a lineup in Seattle. If you read the last part of that sentence in sarcasm font, it makes more sense. All this to say, Morales has his issues but from Craig on down, so does 1st base. In terms of discounts, Morales is getting the ‘first base is deep’ treatment. Don’t buy into that nonsense and definitely don’t fall asleep on this sleeper from Seattle…yeah, I shouldn’t end on that but I’m gonna.
