Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Spring has sprung.
The baseball (and fantasy) world was taken by storm the other day, as the Houston Astros pulled the trigger by calling up top prospect George Springer late Tuesday night. His ownership percentage in fantasy leagues skyrocketed, as he is currently owned in 68 percent of Yahoo! leagues. But I have a newsflash for you, folks.
That’s far too few.
During his time in the minor leagues last season, Springer posted gangbusters numbers, batting over .300 with 37 home runs and 45 stolen bases. Per Tristan Cockroft, Springer was three homers shy of becoming the first 40/40 player in the minors in over 50 seasons. Many weren’t expecting a call-up until May or June, so it’s awesome to see Springer in the majors now in the middle of May. He needs to be owned in every single fantasy league possible, as he is a very legitimate 20/20 guy. But while he batted .303 in the minors last year, don’t nearly expect those numbers to translate into the majors. The guy still struck out 26 percent of the time last season, so big league pitchers won’t be an easy task for him. However, he wasted no time recording his first major league hit.
During his first game, Springer beat out an infield single to achieve the milestone, showcasing his true skill … speed. He then went ahead to beat out another infield single the game after, and while he tried to showcase his stolen base potential, he was picked off. I look at Springer and see a faster version of Jason Heyward. Both are very capable 20/20 guys who will bat around .250-.260, but 20/20 numbers are so rare, that you will happily ignore the batting average. In fact, only nine players in baseball posted such numbers last year, eight of which being shortstops. He has batted a friendly second in the Astros lineup during his first two games, which is arguably the spot in the lineup where your best players bat. Houston’s lineup certainly isn’t great by any means, but they aren’t horrible, so runs and RBI opportunity will be there.
Get him now. Get him now. Get him now.
Adam Pfeifer is a featured fantasy sports columnist for Rant Sports. You can follow him on Twitter @aPfeiferRS.
