For the first three months that Mike Moustakas was in the majors last year, he hit .232 with one home run through 250 ABs. Major league pitching looked all Greek to Moustakas. Hehe. Speaking of which, “hehe” is giggling like a schoolgirl, so shouldn’t it be sheshe? On a side side note, if I opened up a Greek restaurant I’d call it, You’re My Gyro. Or maybe The Greatest American Gyro. I have time to decide since I don’t have any plans to open a Greek restaurant. My suggestion to make Moustakas feel more comfortable last year was for the Royals to hand out bottles of tahini and have their fans squirt each other in the face after a home run. Don’t think they listened to me, but something put Moustakas at ease. In September, he hit .352 with 4 home runs. Looked like the guy who hit 10 homers in Triple-A in only 55 games and 36 homers between Double- and Triple-A the year before. If he would’ve hit only 2 homers in each of the other three months he was in the majors, he would’ve had 10 homers in half of a season and we’d be talking about how he could hit 25 next year. And if I had three legs I’d be unbeatable if the word “tripod” came up in charades. So obviously these hypotheticals aren’t doing us much good with Moustakas, but I just wanted to illustrate how quickly perception can change. So what can we expect of Mike Moustakas for 2012 fantasy baseball and what makes him a keeper?
For whatever reason, when Moustakas starts playing at a new level of pro ball his OBP looks as appetizing as Miso Mayo. Last year in the majors his OBP was .309. First year at Triple-A his OBP was .314, then he followed that up with .347. Maybe he gets excited as all get out and forgets to wait for his pitch. Shine a flashlight on the plate so he can focus his attention. Not many of youse play in leagues with OBP, but I point this out because, “First comes the good OBP, then comes the power, then comes the women,” as the mashup of Moneyball and Scarface character, Billy Beanface, would say. It’s only natural if Moustakas is feeling more comfortable than he’ll hit better. Usually I’ll look at a last month of the season as just a month, but maybe that was Moustakas getting comfortable. He did have some luck with his BABIP, but that was just evening out his miserable luck from earlier in the year, so .270ish looks completely doable. His September HR/FB% of 10.8 looks repeatable, but to be conservative let’s say he’s around a three homer/month guy, giving him a line around 60/20/80/.270/4. Considering how weak 3rd base is, I’d definitely keep Moustakas on teams and diner menus.
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January 04, 2012
