Fun With CBS Fantasy Updates
Published by Yigael Yadin May 8th, 2008 in Racism, Reds, Fantasy Baseball, BDCs
News: Reds 3B Edwin Encarnacion reached base Wednesday in his 27th straight game, the most for a Reds player since RF Austin Kearns reached base in 32 straight in 2003.
Analysis: Encarnacion is a streaky slugger for any Fantasy league when he is going well. He is on pace for a career year at this point, but you have to expect inconsistent results from the free-swinger.
Seems a little odd to call someone with a 27-game on-base streak a free-swinger, but, hey, Jimmy Rollins had that überlong hitting streak and he’s kind of a BDC, so maybe they’re right. Only thing is, Encarnacion’s OBP is currently 102 points above his average on the season, and, just to prove this isn’t something new, his career OBP is almost 80 points above his career AVG. Not Barry Bonds, but no Delmon Young either. He’s also seeing a decent 3.9 P/PA this year, which is just about his career average there too. But he is a Latino, so CBS is probably right.
Since 2006, Encarnacion has been anything but a free swinger. His strikeout rates aren’t high at all, especially for someone with his power. Also, as you mentioned, he walks at a decent clip too.
I also think it’s funny that they call someone with a 27 game on-base-streak inconsistent. Isn’t reaching base 27 games in a row the exact opposite of inconsistent? In the words of Joe Morgan, maybe his problem is that he just isn’t consistently consistent.