2017 Fantasy Baseball: Top 10 Second Basemen
By Jason Evans
10. DJ LeMahieu– Colorado Rockies
2016 stats-146 games .348/.416/.495 11 homers 66 RBI
2017 steamer- 142 games .308/.369/.425 nine homers 59 RBI
The NL batting average champion broke out last season in Colorado and won’t turn 29 until July. LeMahieu has had a steady improvement in his walk rate, K rate, average, OBP, slugging, WRC+ homers and RBI. His WRC+ was sixth among all second baseman last season, higher than that of Dustin Pedroia and Ian Kinsler. LeMahieu has also improved his chase rate over the past three seasons as well.
His hard contract rate went over 35%, an improvement of nine percent from 2015. He’s emerged as someone who a couple of years ago wasn’t really a draft target in most leagues to someone who can be a nice support piece to your squad.
His steamer predictions are on line with what I think you can expect from Lemahieu for 2017. Can you expect him to hit .348 again? No. That’s unreasonable. But a batting average over .300 with 30 doubles and 90 runs on a team that is in an excellent hitting environment and with a deep lineup behind him. I think you’ll take that on your team every time.