2009 Impact Rookie: Elvis Andrus

In recent seasons hitting has not been an issue for the Texas Rangers ball club. Pitching and defense, though, have been a different stories. The club has been unable to obtain top free agent pitchers to the club, so it must continue to wait for some of the impressive, young pitchers that are currently being developed on the farm (And there are quite a few of them).

As for defense, the club is looking to improve in that area ASAP. Incumbent shortstop Michael Young has been moved to third base, where his lack of range will be less of an issue and he should continue to benefit from good hands and strong throws from the hot corner. The shortstop position has been handed to rookie Elvis Andrus, who was originally obtained from the Atlanta Braves in the Mark Teixeira trade in 2007.

There are some good reasons to be concerned about Andrus this season. He is just 20 years of age and has only 482 at-bats above A-ball and zero experience at the Major League level. On the plus side, though, he did hit .295/.350/.367 with 53 stolen bases. His career line in just under 1,600 at-bats is .275/.343/.361. So far this spring, Andrus is batting .267/.308/.317 with three stolen bases.

The Venezuela native is obviously not going to hit for much power in the Majors with 25 extra bases hits and an ISO of .073 in Double-A, so he’ll have to contribute offensively by playing small ball and using his speed. The good news is that Andrus won’t need to chip in significantly with the bat with the likes of Chris Davis, Josh Hamilton, and Ian Kinsler in the everyday line-up.

Defensively, Andrus has solid actions and excellent range. He still makes too many errors (more than 30 in each of the past three years) but many of those were careless. The club brought in defensive whiz Omar Vizquel as a non-roster invitee as insurance for Andrus, but the veteran could spend the year schooling the youngster on defensive consistency.

From a fantasy perspective, Andrus is not likely to have a huge impact in 2009, although he could be the source of some cheap steals. His value will come on the field – and especially in future seasons – for the Rangers.





Marc Hulet has been writing at FanGraphs since 2008. His work focuses on prospects and fantasy. Follow him on Twitter @marchulet.

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jca
14 years ago

I have Ellsbury, Andrus, and Nelson Cruz in a very deep (12 team) AL-only roto league. Assuming steal are fairly evenly spread in my league, can I pretty much ignore anything more than incidental steals (guys likely to be in the 2 – 5 range) from the rest of my team? my other keepers are MByrd (cheap), Polanco, 3b Fields, and KMorales.

Jonathan Sher
14 years ago
Reply to  jca

I’m in a similar league. In the past three years the team that finished third in steals averaged 122 steals compared to a median of 96. My goal is to finish third or better in each category (which much more often than not lead to winning the league). Figure Ellsbury will get you 45, Andrus will get you 30, Polanco will get you 7, Byrd will get you 5 (with reduced pt) and Cruz will get you 12. That leave you with 99 with seven more roster spots to get 23 steals. You’re probably fine; I’d focus on other areas, though it never hurts to have a cushion in each category — in this case a player who helps you elsewhere can also deliver 10-15 steals.