Middle Infield Doctor

Help Me, Help Me Game of Inches! My middle infield is sick. Come to my house and please me out. 1. Doctors don't make house calls anymore. It's called a hospital bitch. 2. But of course, I'll be glad to help nonetheless. Chances are your stud middle infielder is currently hurting you right now, either because of failure or injury. Chase Utley, Dustin Pedroia, Troy Tulowitzki, Brian Roberts are on the DL, Jimmy Rollins has spent more time on the DL than at the plate, Ian Kinsler has been more bad than good, and Aaron Hill has just been bad. So here's some suggestions to help you out.

Juan Uribe (2B, SS, 3B) 79% Yahoo! ownership

Chances are if you're in a league that has 12 teams or more Uribe is owned. But if he's available in your league, snatch him up. Uribe has always been a power hitter throughout his career so the 12 homers Uribe has should be no surprise. Plus Uribe's multiple positions makes him a rich man's Ty Wiggington.

Erick Aybar (SS) 43% Yahoo! ownership

If you're looking for cheap steals, Aybar is your man. And within the past month he's hitting .380 and is a career .270 hitter who hit .312 last year. Essentially everybody and their mother are stealing bases nowadays but it's nice to have a guy who won't kill your BA (like mother freaking Juan Pierre is doing)

Clint Barmes (2B, SS) 17% Yahoo! ownership

With Tulo being out Barmes is now getting more playing time and with the second best FB% among shortstops and second basemen (AND while playing in homer-friendly Coors), I expect a lot more home runs (and subsequent RBI's in that Rockies line up) to come from Barmes. Although don't expect too much BA help with his current .265 BABIP (.283 career and .256 BA career)

Alexei Rameriz (SS) 62% Yahoo! ownership

I think Alexei is about a .280 BA guy so his .264 BA I think will come up- and his .292 BA within the past month is a sign of this- with some power and speed is always a great combination. A-Ram plays for the White Sox which makes him an awesome fantasy guy because with the weather heating up in The Cell and Ozzie giving his entire team (sans Konerko) the green light to run, I expect more HR and SB to come out of the bag o' bones that is Alexei Rameriz. Think of him as a very poor man's Alex Rios.

SIDENOTE: I for some reason still like Gordon Beckham. No idea why though.

3 comments:

Cubsfan4evr said...

These are good suggestions, but in harder leagues all of these players are gone already. This has taught me that you should always try to have a good extra middle infielder on your bench to start the season. This way if a middle infielder on your team goes down for an extended period like Jimmy Rollins, Troy Tulowitzki, or Asdrubal Cabrera your not screwed. There aren't that many infielders left in free agency that are decent options in most of my leagues.

Adam Kaplan said...

what position do you need filled and what players are available? Lemme me help you out baby bird- assuming it's not a GOI league. B/c if it is, at least one of these players was available at the time of this post.

Cubsfan4evr said...

In the GOI league where I needed help Aybar was an option, but he was rumored to go on the DL then so I passed on him. Uribe and A. Ramirez were on roster in all of the leagues where I have looked. Barmes was surprisingly taken so I had to pick up S.Rogiuez for 2B when Utley went on the DL in my non GOI league.