You know the Sciosciapath on the top step of the dugout down there in the Los Angeles Suburb of Los Angeles? He loves these players. These Peter Bourjos players. I’d argue — or at least state, as I’m about to do — that he’d give one of ‘these players’ 500 plate appearances even if they’re hitting .220. Erick Aybar saw 589 plate appearances last year just for rolling out of bed and getting to the ballpark on time to walk The Rally Monkey around the grounds so it didn’t shat in Scioscia’s office. To go further, Bourjos’ glove will keep him in the lineup. Like Michael Bay on a movie set, he’ll have his 500 PAs. So when Bill James gives Bourjos 281 plate appearances and 6 homers and 19 steals, I shake my Magic Eight Ball and it says, “My reply is no.” True fact: If Napoli stole 15 bases and hit .240 with zero homers, he would’ve played every day. So what do I think we can expect of Peter Bourjos for 2011 fantasy baseball and why is he a sleeper?
SAGNOF! We’re getting that out of the way, for sure. He’s crazy fast. You know the episode where Alex P. Keaton takes speed pills and starts moving a mile a minute in his rolling chair? That’s Bourjos. Bourjos just ran into your room, mussed your hair, re-combed it to exactly the same place and left the room before you even noticed. 25 steals is a given. But I wanna talk about the fizzle in his pop. In 181 ABs last year, he hit 6 homers. In 414 ABs in Triple-A last year, he hit 13 homers. The power is hurting his average. He should be slapping the ball and legging out hits. For further reading on the subject, see Stubbs, Drew. The word on the streets of Bobby Grichville is the Angels are going to try to emphasize to him to stop trying to hit the ball out of the yard. Whatever. He’s going to hit 10 homers in 2011. Since he’s such a burner, my 30 steals is very conservative. He could swipe 35+ bags. Say his line for next year is 70/10/55/.255/30. He’s not the greatest 12 team mixed league option, but as you get in deeper leagues, he’s a must look at sleeper.
