Will age ever catch up with Paul Konerko? The veteran first baseman looked left for dead after down years in 2007, 2008 and 2009, but he’s since found new life with the team he’s been a member of since 1999. Excluding those three down years, Konkero is as consistent as they come. You’ll get a .300 average, around 30 homers and over 100 RBI. Plus, he’s played fewer than 149 games just twice in the last 11 seasons (137 in 2003 and 122 in 2009). He has just nine stolen bases to his credit in his 1,998 games played, but I think we can all live with that trade-off.
Best case scenario: Prince Fielder (DET)
Similar players: Eric Hosmer (KC), Mike Morse (WAS), Adrian Beltre (TEX)
Worst case scenario: Freddie Freeman (ATL)
Strengths
BA, RBI, HR at home. Our xBA equation does tend to underrate the guys with almost no speed, which is likely why we see Konerko consistently outperforming his xBAs over the last three seasons. In reality he’s a guy with a high line...
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