If you thought 00’s references were going out of style, you were probably right. So it makes sense that this period was my peak a burgeoning adult and I’ve never looked back nor matured since. And while the last thing we need a reminder of is one of Adam Sandler’s dumpster fires, this charming parlance through time has at least acted as a vehicle to talk about one Nicky Lopez, a middle infielder that is not only producing now, but is slowly building himself up to be an underrated target this upcoming preseason.
Already tagged a sleeper pick-up at different levels of infatuation the past month, it’s only a matter of time before his status rises, and while I mentioned in the lede that Lopez is a possible underrated target for next season, we may simply see him shake that mantel off here and now and establish himself as a potential must-draft and top-100 player. Sounds impossible? Well, thankfully for us this isn’t Mission Impossible, it’s Razzball, so, you know, totally different set of criteria. And honestly, they shouldn’t even be compared, like peas and copper wire. Totally a saying.
Hitting .260/.320/.337 for his career may not light your socks on fire, which is good, no one wants that kind of southern flammability, but isn’t terrible in the context of his growth as a hitter and where he finds himself this season, improving to the tune of a .299/.368/.374 triple-slash. And if recency bias can be relied upon (spoiler alert: it shouldn’t be!), well, Nicky Lopez is a definite pick-up for any team still in it and is certainly a young player who should be rostered in any keeper format. These small caveats withstanding, what he’s doing in the final weeks of the season probably won’t change his overall dynamic too much, it’s important to gauge these types of producers if next season means anything to anyone, mostly you. The royal you.
Projected as a hitter that would have an average hit tool, middling power, but good speed and strong enough defense to stay at the keystone and keep his MI eligibility, there’s not much standing in the way here. If nothing else, I think he’s already met his potential. And while it’s hard to fathom a “valuable” player not having power in his repreatoire to justify that “value”, I do believe there’s enough of the other stuff going on to be okay with that.
And what’s that other stuff? Well, speed mainly, but there’s also something to be said about the growth of his hit tool and the fact that sometimes it’s nice to have a batting average foil around your team’s counting stats. Percentages are people categories too! And granted, it’s not just the fact that he’s hitting .299 for the season and of this writing, it’s also how he’s been able to do that. First, yes, I can confirm that this is the highest BABIP sustained in his career, .349 to his career .305. This isn’t a ringing endorsement, but I would point out that Lopez is still young and only has three partial seasons of plate appearances, enough to understand the numbers, but still small enough to see permanent shifts. That is to say that his career BABIP may yet to be determined.
But beyond that, there are great signs in his plate discipline this year and his development in that regard to this point. Going from a 21.4% strikeout rate to 13.7% is no small feat, and has been driven by an almost six percent rise in his contact percentage from last season, and further, an almost six percent increase in his ability to make contact in the strike zone. Keep in mind as well that this is not from swinging more, in fact, his Swing% is directly in line with this career and last season’s mark of 44.2%. This is all to say that he isn’t seeing the ball any better, he’s just hitting it better, taking that average hit tool and perhaps laying out a future that combines his plus-plus speed with his newly developed plus-plus average.
Everyone wants a little bit of power until they want a lot, this is the way and has been for quite sometime in fantasy baseball. And that’s quite alright, but they all can’t hit the longball. Sooner or later, we have to dabble into other categories, and what better way than to do so with a perceptibly under-valued player (most likely) that fills out a dearthy (totally a word) position at second, and brings you not just speed, but the possibility of a batting average producer (also on-base producer for those specific formats)?
Look, I didn’t promise “Big” Nicky, but I also didn’t promise Mission Impossible. I’m not sure what I’m saying there, but I’ll say it like this: you want speed, you want average, you want it in a young player at a shallow position? I give you a bad Adam Sandler movie.
Mission Accomplished. (No, not that kind…)
Jay is a longtime Razzball everything who consumes an egregious amount of Makers Mark as a vehicle to gain wisdom and augment his natural glow. Living in the D.C. area, he also likes spending time visiting the local parks and feeding lettuce to any turtles he encounters, including Mitch McConnell. You can follow him on Twitter @jaywrong.
