Key Stats: For the fourth straight season Alexei Ramirez had 15 or more home runs. He’s only 30 years old and hasn’t ever had serious issues staying on the field. In four seasons Ramirez has never been ranked better than 96th or worse than 171st by Yahoo rankings. He has been a consistent player at a position that has been anything but over the same time period. There is also no glaring weakness in any of his splits which indicates he’s a lazy manager’s dream.
Skeptics Say: Ramirez had just 7 steals last year. He had averaged 13 per season prior to that. Writing him off as a double digit base stealer isn’t fair. We’ve seen players such as Chase Utley have bounce back years in steals even as age crept up on them – and that’s not saying that age is really that big of a deal with a 30-year-old.
Peer Comparison: ESPN, CBS, and I all agree that Derek Jeter should be taken prior to Alexei Ramirez. Jeter’s skills are obviously declini...
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