Article:Three quarters Chipper and a slice of Ty is better then the whole Longo pie!

Long title, sure, you will get over it though and be especially thankful when you can draft Upton, Beltran or you know, someone actually worth a second  round pick, instead of Evan (I might be Troy Glaus, I might be great) Longoria. You see something is going on with the hot corner and it is affecting drafts everywhere. A great baseball player is being drafted as if he is a great fantasy baseball player and well, it’s just not the case. Think I am joking? Maybe to harsh with the Glaus comparison you say? Ok please examine the facts that follow neatly designed for your viewing pleasure with bullet points.


 * Longoria has never stolen double digit bags
 * Longoria has never hit more then 30 bombs
 * Longoria has a lifetime average in proball under .300
 * Longoria strikes out over 25% in his proball career.

Now that I have your attention let me clear up a few things. I am not saying Longo is a bum or a bust, no, what I am saying is he in no way worth a second, third or probably even fourth round pick this year. Oh but Mike, as a rookie he did… Save it sister, or more then likely middle aged balding guy. He is not going to hit forty homers or suddenly steal 15+ bags. Oh an for suddenly hitting over .300? Not one hitter who punched out 25% of the time or more hit over three hundred. So ask yourself, if Longo was to come out and hit .281 with 32HR 95R 110Bi and 7SB would he be a bust? Hell no! but would he be in the top 20 for overall production. Also, Hell no! yet that is where he is being taken. Now part of the problem is the position it self. After A-Roid and Wright there is a considerable drop off and a bunch of risk reward types. So what is a fantasy owner to do? Simple draft the true number three third baseman, the true impact bat, Chipper Jones. Gasp you say, but he is injury prone and thirty seven and blah, blah and on and on you go. Well, while you make a valid point I am going to break it all down for you and let you in on a little secret. Elite production, even in a smaller dose is still elite production. Consider the following. Chipper’s ADP is 50 th putting him in the 5 th round of a 12 team draft. Now at this time you will have your building blocks (first three rounds dummy) plus whatever you have identified for value in the fourth and you wouldn’t of wasted a second rounder on Glau…I mean Evan almighty. Now onto all those Chipper naysayers and their naysay complaints. Please see bullet points below again.


 * Chipper has played in 120+ games three years in a row
 * Chipper has averaged 26HR over that time
 * Chipper has averaged .341 over that time

Ok so as you can see he is oozing with awesomeness but he will miss some time. Well that is where a random 3b eligible player comes in. For this specific post I have chosen a  personal favorite Ty Wigginton. Now I do not know Ty personally so that is not why he is a favorite. Ty is a favorite because his ADP has him being drafted after round 15. And while he is not a stud he is more then adequate for the 150-200 AB’s I will need him to cover Chipper for. Non sense you say? Ok well lets just grab any random two month sample from Ty last season as this will cover roughly the 40 games he will be covering Chipper for. Lets just grab June and August of last season and see what are 15 th rounder did. He hit .320 with 15HR and 1SB. Wow! Ok really wish I hadn’t grabbed his August but whatever. I mean look at his past three seasons averages .278/23HR/4SB. As you can see he is not other worldly but 150 or so of his Ab’s and 450 of chippers gives you far and away the third best third baseman in the draft. Especially when you add in the value you received by taking a true second round pick.