Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
As a fantasy owner of Rickie Weeks, his early season struggles frustrated me, but they didn’t worry me.
Trust me, there is a difference.
Entering Tuesday night’s game with a dismal batting average of .167, Weeks hadn’t posted a multi-hit game since April 3rd. Of course, a rough batting average is nothing new to Weeks or his fantasy owners, considering he is sporting a career average of .249, which is why I am not worried about him. However, for those who were worried, you can relax a little bit, because the Milwaukee Brewers second baseman finally put something together at the plate.
During Tuesday night’s 12-8 victory over the Pirates, Weeks went 3-4 for a home run, double, walk, one run scored and five RBI. He would have also notched a stolen base, had he not have been caught stealing. Still, a very impressive stat line from Weeks. The breakout performance was a comforting one for fantasy owners, bumping his season average to .191. Still bad, but Weeks is a safe bet to finish the season around the .240 mark. Weeks also took extended batting practice prior to the game, which appeared to have done wonders for his offensive game. Maybe he should do that more often?
Weeks has a rare combination of power and speed, but his poor batting average limits him from being an elite fantasy option at the second base position. Usually batting cleanup in a very strong order consisting of stud Ryan Braun, rising talent Jean Segura and others, Weeks has tremendous upside to be driving in more runs than the nine he has through 26 games this year. If owners are in serious need of a second baseman, Weeks wouldn’t be a bad option to consider buying low on. Perhaps current owners don’t understand that he is always a batting average liability and are frustrated, resulting in them trading him away for much less than market value. Personally, I have been high on Weeks for a few years now, and am certainly not giving up on him. This strong performance makes it that much easier.
Adam Pfeifer is a featured fantasy sports columnist for Rant Sports.
You can follow him on Twitter @aPfeiferRS.
