Howard Smith – USA Today Sports
In sports, there are always guys who get a ton of credit, and also those players who consistently perform but never get the recognition.
This also applies to fantasy baseball, as many quality contributors often fly under the radar, only to play well year after year. Finding these solid veterans for cheap can be invaluable for your fantasy team, so we are going to create a full squad of underrated performers that are helping your 2013 squad and have been doing it for years.
To continue the series, we look at Cleveland Indians OF Nick Swisher.
It seems like just yesterday that Billy Beane hyped the young Oakland Athletics outfielder as the perfect ‘Moneyball’ player, and he has lived up to that billing with a career .361 OBP. What Swisher has also become, however, is a very consistent source of power numbers for fantasy owners. Taken late in drafts, he has been a model of consistency. He has hit at least 21 home runs in eight straight seasons, scored at least 75 runs in the last seven years and has driven in at least 82 in the past four (never driving in fewer than 69 his entire career).
Swisher does not steal bases and his average is consistently around .250, which isn’t great but also isn’t going to kill your team. Over the course of a season it is hard to find a guy that can consistently produce decent power numbers like he has, especially for the value. He went in round 15 or later in the majority of drafts, and to find a safe, consistent pick like him at that point gives fantasy owners a great advantage.
This year he is producing similar numbers with six home runs, 16 RBI and a .374 OBP to go along with a .273 average owners have to be pleased with. He’s well on his way to yet another 20-80 season, production fantasy owners can’t overlook.
2013 Fantasy Baseball All-Underrated Team
SP: Bronson Arroyo, Cincinnati Reds
RP: Rafael Betancourt, Colorado Rockies
OF: Nick Swisher, Cleveland Indians
Stay tuned for the next edition of the 2013 Fantasy Baseball All-Underrated Team on www.Rantsports.com/fantasy
Rich Arleo is a fantasy sports expert with Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @Rarleo, ‘Like’ him on Facebook and add him to your networks on Google.
