ADP Crowdsourcing: Robinson Cano
In today’s edition of ADP Crowdsourcing, we are using pick number instead of round again, so please vote accordingly. Also in today’s edition, we use a suggestion from the audience, specifically reader “phoenix2042.”
Robinson Cano’s 2010 breakout was huge for a multitude of reasons. Some pertaining to fantasy baseball, and some that were more relevant to real life ballin’. Sometimes, when we see a player improve his power numbers, we’ll see a drop in batting average due to a changed swing and/or more strikeouts while going for the big one. This was not the case for Cano, who’s batting average dropped a single point despite a higher (yet still low) strikeout rate.
Cano’s now shown me that he can be a consistent .320 hitter if his BABIP doesn’t screw him, and entering his age-28 season, we could see even more pop from the middle infielder. He hit 29 dingers last season, so surpassing 30 would be pretty easy.
Cano has had over 600 plate appearances in each of the past four seasons, and has never made less than 500 trips to the plate in his career. He’s durable, plays a premium position for a good team, and produces at a high rate. This guys a first round pick, for sure, but how high should he really go in the first? That’s for y’all to decide.
Below is a link to the voting form, and please read the wording carefully. This is not where you would draft him, but where you think he’ll be drafted in most leagues. This time around, we’re using pick number instead of round, as it works a little better for top players. For the voting, we’re assuming a 12-team standard league, using 5×5 scoring.
To submit your vote, click here. And while you’re at it, why not submit a fan projection for Cano by clicking here?
Zach is the creator and co-author of RotoGraphs' Roto Riteup series, and RotoGraphs' second-longest tenured writer. You can follow him on twitter.
He’s #5 on my board but with the variety of options after the top 4 (and even some disagreement on those), I figure he’ll average around pick #7.
fwiw, I can’t really fathom an argument against some combination of Pujols, Votto, Hanley, and Tulo being the top 4. I’ve noted a lot of disagreement on Tulo, but if I have the chance to not deal with the 2nd tier of SS, I’m going to take it.
Speaking of Tulo, he might be a good one for this series.
second that. getting tulo’s production in the SS spot is huge. there are tons of good 1B out there to choose from, but after hanley and tulo, the next best SSs are what jeter, reyes, andrus, rollins… basically all guys witch huge question marks. SS is really shallow. i think tulo would be great for this series!
Zach – Why don’t you guys use auction dollars here (and in other articles)? It seems to me that the FanGraphs crowd would be the level of player that prefers the complexities not offered by snake drafts….
Just curious.
I like this series and I hope it continues but any chance of getting the results sooner? Mark Reynolds was posted on the 8th and I’m on tenterhooks. Does it really take that long for the voting to close?
Reynolds’ results went up last Friday, Aaron. Below is the link
http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/index.php/crowdsourcing-results-gonzalez-and-reynolds/
I like to do one on Monday and one on Wednesday w/ results up Friday, because that way we can get almost get a full two days of voting for each one.
Ah, I see my confusion. The headline on that post cuts off before listing Reynolds name. Sorry for my obtuseness and thanks for the series.
http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/index.php/crowdsourcing-results-gonzalez-and-reynolds/
Oops, beaten to the punch. I should probably post on a freshly loaded page more frequently.
cano also walked more this year than ever before, which can make up for the Ks’ impact on batting average in an OBP league. also, batting fifth in the lineup now means a lot of RBI, and he moves to 4th when arod or tex are beat up and not playing (DL or days off), which was actually a bunch of PA last year.