Padres prospect Chase Headley made his major league debut in 2008, hitting .269/.337/.420 with nine homers in 331 at bats. What can we expect in 2009?

Headley struck out in 31% of his at bats with the Padres – a lofty number for a guy who only hit nine homers. In the minor leagues Headley struck out a lot as well – he Ked in 25% of his at bats in triple-A this year, and 26% of his at bats in double-A in 2007. Furthermore, Headley will be 25 years old in May; he’s young, but he’s not that young. Thus, while it’s reasonable to expect some improvement from Headley in the strikeout department, all signs suggest that he will strike out a lot next year, too.

All of those strikeouts will keep his batting average down, but at least Headley hits the ball hard when he does make contact. His 24.7% line drive percentage supports his .369 BABIP; furthermore, his minor league track record suggests that Headley will continue to his a lot of line drives and have a high BABIP: his LD% in triple-A this year was 21.9%, and in double-A last year it was 23.8%.

Thus, while the high amount of strikeouts prevent Headley from having a high batting average, his line-drive percentage should keep his BA from falling too low. The .269 average he posted in 2008 seems like a reasonable approximation of what to expect going forward – perhaps Headley will strike out a little less often in the future, but this may be negated by a (somewhat small) drop in his LD%, as few hitters can sustain an LD% over 24%.

Headley displayed tremendous power over the last two seasons in the minors, slugging .576 in double-A in 2007 and following it up with a .556 SLG in triple-A in 2008. However, Headley’s isolated power was not as impressive as you might expect (.249 and .251); rather, it seems that while Headley did indeed hit for a lot of power, much of his high SLG was inflated by a high batting average – and remember, that high batting average is unlikely to continue in the majors.

Thus, while Headley does possess power, his minor league track record may overstate just how much power he has. Furthermore, Headley plays for the San Diego Padres, which means that he has to play half of his home games in PETCO Park. PETCO, as you probably know, absolutely kills homers, hurts doubles, is relatively neutral on singles, and inflates triples. Judging from what we know about Headley, PETCO seems like it will hurt him even more than it might hurt another player – Headley won’t put too many balls in play, and will lose a tremendous amount of homers (and doubles, not that fantasy players care too much about them) thanks to his home park.

Sure enough, in his half-season with the Padres in 2008, Headley hit .301/.361/.470 with five homers on the road, but only .230/.307/.358 with four homers at home. Headley might be worth platooning if you are able to couple him with another decent 3B; however, that may be a waste of a valuable roster spot that would be better served by simply playing Headley’s platoon partner full-time.

If there’s one area in which Headley could improve, it’s by hitting more fly balls. Only 37% of his balls in play were fly balls in 2008 – if he can up this number, he should be able to hit more homers. However, in the minors his fly ball rate fluctuated between 39% and 44%, suggesting that while Headley may be able to improve somewhat, it will take a dramatic improvement to get his fly ball rate up to 50% or so.

Finally, it looks like Headley is entrenched in left field, unless the Padres move Kevin Kouzmanoff. In fantasy baseball, Chase Headley the outfielder is even less valuable than Chase Headley the third baseman. If Headley regains (or retains) third base eligibility in your league, he will have slightly more value.

Chase Headley is a solid player, but don’t get too excited about him. He doesn’t appear to have that much power in the first place, and what power he does have is going to be sapped by PETCO Park. He’s worth drafting, but only a late-round flier. Let someone else overvalue him.

Brian Giles wasn’t supposed to be this good. A 17th-round selection by the Cleveland Indians all the way back in 1989, Giles was seen as a short, stocky kid without much “projection.” The El Cajon, California native was 5-10 on his tippy toes and had a frame that was already considered maxed out. In his early minor league career, Giles showed plate discipline beyond his years, but not a whole lot of power.

Upon reaching AAA, however, he turned into a hitting machine, getting on base at a .390+ clip and slugging 31 combined homers over the 1994 and 1995 seasons. Despite his keen batting eye (14.9 BB% in the minors), contact ability (13.8 K%) and burgeoning power, Giles never really got the opportunity to establish himself as a full-time player for the Indians. That was in no small part due to the absurd amount of outfield talent that flowed through Cleveland at the time (Manny Ramirez, Albert Belle, Kenny Lofton, David Justice). Giles posted a tasty .284/.391/.485 line in 857 AB for Cleveland between 1995 and 1998, but for that he was shown the door. Ten years ago today, Giles was shipped to Pittsburgh in exchange for LOOGY Ricardo Rincon in one of the most lopsided trades of the ’90’s.

Liberated in the ‘Burgh, Giles blossomed into an absolute force. Seeing his first full-time duty in 1999 at the age of 28, Giles posted a stunning .315/.418/.614 line, with 39 home runs. The good times would keep on rolling during his tenure with the Bucs. In fact, one could make an argument that Giles was one of the top 10 most valuable properties in the game during his time in Pittsburgh:

Giles’ WPA/LI, 1999-2003

1999: 6.31 (3rd in MLB)
2000: 6.05 (6th)
2001: 5.56 (12th)
2002: 6.81 (2nd)
2003: 2.95 (29th)

Upon being shipped to San Diego in July of 2003, Giles continued to compile impressive numbers, with a WPA/LI of 3.26 in 2004, 4.75 in 2005, and 1.71 in 2006. After a 0.56 WPA/LI mark in 2007, Giles bounced back to post a 2.52 figure in 2008. That 2008 performance ranked 15th among all outfielders.

While Giles’ power has been pared down by Petco Park’s cavernous dimensions, he retains perhaps the best strike-zone control of any player in the game today. The man with a career .404 OBP walked 13.5% of the time in 2008, and whiffed just 9.3%. Giles’ 17.4 Outside Swing Percentage (O-Swing%) was the 10th-lowest in the game, and by his standards, that was an ultra-aggressive season:

Giles’ O-Swing%, 2005-2008

2005: 8.5%
2006: 12.9%
2007: 14%
2008: 17.4%

When Giles does decide to fish at one out of the strike zone, there’s usually a good reason: he can make contact with the pitch. His 81.5 O-Contact% was the 6th-highest among all batters this past season. Interestingly, Giles has significantly increased his ability to put the bat on the ball on his outside swings as he has gotten older:

Giles’ Outside Contact Percentage (O-Contact%), 2005-2008:

2005: 63%
2006: 77.4%
2007: 73.8%
2008: 81.5%

When Giles decides to swing (which isn’t very often- his 39.9 Swing% was 13th-lowest in baseball), he almost never misses. His 92.8 Contact% was the best in baseball, and his contact percentage on pitches thrown in the strike zone (Z-Contact%) was second-best in the game at 96.2%.

Brian Giles will turn 38 in January, but he remains one of the most underappreciated talents in the game. He may no longer be the over-the-fence threat of his Pittsburgh days (part park effects, part father time), but Giles is coming off of a plenty useful .306/.398/.456 season, and the Bill James projection system forecasts a .280/.387/.435 line for 2009. If you want a player who knows the strike zone better than the man in blue behind him, then Brian Giles is your guy.

In 2007, Brewers right fielder Corey Hart appeared to establish himself as a championship-caliber player. The lanky, 6-6 Hart had long been considered one of Milwaukee’s best young talents, and in ’07 he put together an impressive .295/.353/.539 line in 566 PA. His walk rate remained low (6.7%, the same as 2006), but he upped his Isolated Power (ISO) from .186 in 2006 to .244 in 2007, a whopping 58 point increase. His 2.38 WPA/LI ranked 12th among all outfielders, and with 24 HR and 23 SB, he turned in a nifty 20/20 season. Just 26 heading into the 2008 season, Hart figured to build upon his breakout year.

Suffice it to say, that didn’t happen. Hart turned in a disappointing .268/.300/.459 line, with his ISO falling back to .191. His already tenuous walk rate dipped to 4.2%. Hart still turned in a 20/20 campaign (20 HR, 23 SB), but his WPA/LI fell by over two wins, down to 0.28 (the 20th-worst mark among qualified outfielders).

In 2008, Hart found himself behind in the count after the first pitch more than any other player in the game. Hart’s First Pitch Strike Percentage (F-Strike%) was an alarming 68.9%, nearly three percent higher than second-ranked Adam Jones. This wasn’t a one-year fluke, either: Hart’s F-Strike% has been over 60% in every major league season, pointing to an unrefined approach that often leaves him behind in the count before he can even blink. While most players show some improvement in their plate discipline as they gain big-league experience, Hart has progressively become more of a hacker:

Hart’s Outside Swing Percentage (O-Swing%), 2006-2008:

2006: 22.3%
2007: 25.7%
2008: 31.7%

As he’s gotten older, Hart has devolved from a guy with a relatively patient approach to a free-swinging mess. His overall Swing % has also increased rapidly: 45.1% in 2006, 50.3% in 2007, and 54.7% in 2008. That 2008 number was the fifth-highest in the game. Swinging that often is okay if you’re shoe top hitter Vladimir Guerrero (who swung at a league high 60.3% of pitches seen) and you can make contact with 70% of pitches thrown outside of the strike zone, but Hart’s O-Contact% was a mild 54.5%, 14th-lowest among outfielders.

It appears as though pitchers identified a weakness in Hart’s game this past season. During his promising 2007 season, Hart saw a fastball 58.6% of the time. In 2008, he saw a heater just 51.7%, the 6th-lowest rate among all hitters. In place of those heaters, Hart saw a heaping helping of sliders, as his slider percentage increased from 18.7% in ’07 to 23.5% in 2008. Among qualified batters, only Hunter Pence, Dan Uggla and Geovany Soto saw a higher percentage of slide-pieces.

The game plan against Hart last season, particularly during his execrable second half (.239/.263/.396), became simple: get ahead of him 0-1, and then feed him a steady diet of sliders, knowing full well that he would be tempted to chase them out of the zone. The Bill James projection system sees a rebound season in store for Hart (.286/.336/.496), but he’s going to have to show some restraint against those outside sliders, lest NL pitchers make quick work of him again in 2009.

After playing most of the 2007 season with a knee injury, Jason Bay saw his average draft position fall to 112.88 in 2008, according to Sportsline.com. And then Bay turned around and put up a top-25 hitting season, similar to what he did when healthy in 2005 and 2006. One of the steals of the 2008 draft, Bay will go much sooner than the 11th or 12th round this year.

Most of Bay’s numbers last year matched his career averages. The area that stands out is his FB%, with his numbers showing a steady increase the past few seasons. In 2005, it was 40.6 percent and by 2008 he posted a 46.0 percent flyball rate. Meanwhile, his HR/FB have fluctuated between 11.4 percent in his injury-plagued 2007 season to 18.8 percent in 2006. Last year it was 15 percent, which was below his career rate of 16.4 percent.

Bay hit well after his deadline deal to Boston, as he posted an .897 OPS after the trade. He even hit more flyballs (47.8 percent after the trade) but it resulted in fewer home runs. Bay had nine homers after the deal and six of those came on the road, which suggests that perhaps he had some issues with the Green Monster. It’s more likely a sample size issue and I think fantasy players should not lower their home run projections for him in any meaningful way.

Count on a healthy Bay to provide a .290-30-100 line with 100 runs and 10 steals. And that should be easily good enough to be a top-30 hitter and one of the top 15 outfielders. And if he continues to hit more flyballs and adapts to the Green Monster, a 35-40 HR season is not out of the question.

A gifted center fielder with well-regarded hitting skills, Carlos Gonzalez has now been involved in two blockbuster trades over the past two off seasons. Originally signed by the Arizona Diamondbacks out of Venezuela in 2002, Gonzalez ranked as the top property in the D-Backs’ system before he became a prominent piece of the Dan Haren trade. After only one year with Oakland, the lefty-hitter will now pack his bags and head to the friendly environs of Coors Field, as the principal player for the Rockies in the Matt Holliday deal. Let’s take a look back at Gonzalez’s minor league career to help project what sort of player he may develop into over the next few years.

Gonzalez started his professional career in 2003, for Missoula of the Rookie-Level Pioneer League. The then-17 year old held his own, batting .258/.308/.404 in 275 AB. In a sign of things to come, Gonzalez displayed pretty good pop for his age (.146 ISO), but also rather raw control of the strike zone (5.8 BB%, 22.2K%)

In 2004, the 6-1,180 pounder would spend the majority of his season with Yakima of the Low-A Northwest League. In 300 AB for the club, he posted a .273/.327/.427 line, with 9 HR. Gonzalez drew a few more walks (7.3BB%), while swinging and missing a slightly higher percentage of the time (23.3K%). In a late-season promotion to South Bend of the Low-A Midwest League, Gonzalez hacked his way to a .275/.288/.412 line, drawing only one walk in 51 AB.

Gonzalez would return to the Midwest League in 2005, spending the entire campaign at South Bend. As a 19 year-old, Gonzalez broke out, batting an impressive .307/.371/.489 and popping 18 home runs in 515 AB. His walk rate climbed to a decent 9.3% and he cut his K rate to 16.7%. Also, his ISO climbed from the .150-ish range in ’03 and ’04 to .182. Following this stellar season, Baseball America ranked Gonzalez as the 32nd-best prospect in the game.

In 2006, Gonzalez would be promoted to the hitter-happy environment of the High-A California League, spending the majority of the season at Lancaster (home of 40 MPH jet streams). To say that Lancaster increases offensive production is sort of like saying the United States has some slight debt issues at the moment. Per Baseball Prospectus 2008, Clear Channel Stadium boosted batting levels about 11% between 2005-2007. For the aptly-named Jet Hawks, Gonzalez compiled a .300/.349/.563 line, belting 21 long balls in 403 AB. While that comes out to a .263 ISO, one has to keep in mind his home ballpark. Gonzalez’s control of the strike zone actually seemed to take a step back, as he walked 6.9% and whiffed 25.8%. Late in the season, Gonzalez would be promoted to AA Tennessee of the Southern League, where he batted .213/.294/.410 in 61 AB.

2007 would see Gonzalez return to AA, this time with new D-Backs affiliate Mobile. In 458 AB, the 21 year-old hit .286/.333/.476. In a more neutral hitting environment, Gonzalez posted a solid .190 ISO, though he continued to employ an aggressive approach that saw him draw a free pass just 6.5% of the time. His K rate declined slightly, to 22.5%. In 42 late-season AB with AAA Tucson, he hit .310/.396/.500. After his solid AA campaign, BA would rank bump Gonzalez up to the 22nd-ranked prospect in the minors.

Following the ’07 season, Gonzalez was shipped to Oakland along with a cadre of other prospects (Dana Eveland, Greg Smith, Aaron Cunningham, Brett Anderson and Chris Carter) in exchange for Haren and Connor Robertson. Gonzalez would open the season with AAA Sacramento of the Pacific Coast League, hitting a mild .283/.344/.416 in 173 AB. Called up to Oakland in late May, Gonzalez had a rough go of it in his first taste of the majors. As a player with unrefined control of the strike zone, the Venezuelan unsurprisingly struggled. Gonzalez posted a .242/.273/.361 line in 302 AB, with an ugly 4.1BB% and a lofty strikeout rate (26.8%). He didn’t show a whole lot of restraint, swinging at 32.5% of pitches thrown outside of the strike zone, and his contact rate was rather low at 74.11%.

Gonzalez is headed to the best offensive environment in baseball, but it would be best to take a wait-and-see approach with the 23 year-old. While he has shown a solid amount of power in the minors, he has also posted low walk rates and relatively high strikeout totals. Gonzalez is essentially a lottery ticket for the Rockies and for fantasy owners: if his plate discipline improves to an acceptable level, he could be a star-caliber performer. If not, he might just be a Juan Encarnacion-type with more defensive value.

Daniel Murphy entered the 2008 season not even among the Mets’ top 10 prospects according to Baseball America. Prospect maven John Sickels gave him a “C” grade but called him a sleeper. Yet Murphy surprised the experts, as he rocketed to the majors where he posted a .313/.397/.473 slash line in 131 at-bats. In 2009, Murphy is viewed as a player to supplement the team’s core of Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes and David Wright. The only question is where he will play.

A natural third baseman, Murphy saw the bulk of his playing time in left field for the Mets last season. This year he’s playing second base in the Arizona Fall League and is slated to play left field later in the year when he plays Winter Ball in Puerto Rico.

An .870 OPS bat will play anywhere in the field. But Murphy did post a .386 BABIP last year. He also struck out in 21.4 percent of his at-bats. Sickels praised Murphy for his line drive swing and he lived up to that reputation, with a LD% of 33.3, which was greater than his FB% of 25.5 for the Mets.

Murphy’s value goes through the roof if he is the team’s starter at second base on Opening Day. However, that seems unlikely at this point. Still, he will be a nice end-game acquisition on Draft Day. Yes, the BABIP was high in the majors, but so was the strikeout rate. At Double-A he fanned just 46 times in 357 at-bats. If his strikeout rate drops closer to his career minor league rate of 12.1 percent, a .300 average is not out of the question. Murphy has double-digit HR potential and his R/RBIs should be above-average in the team’s strong lineup.

The best-case scenario is Murphy claims the team’s starting second base job and bats second in the lineup. He could post a .300-12-70 line with 95 runs scored batting behind Reyes and in front of Wright and Beltran. In the more likely outfield batting seventh scenario, Murphy’s runs would take a big hit but he would compensate with a few more RBIs.

While the paperwork is not yet finalized and physicals still need to be taken, all indications are that slugging left fielder Matt Holliday is headed to Oakland for outfielder Carlos Gonzalez, left-handed starter Greg Smith and reliever Huston Street.

With a couple of outstanding young starting prospects on the way in Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson, as well as several other well-regarded arms (Gio Gonzalez, James Simmons and Vince Mazzaro) close to contributing, the Athletics are seemingly gearing up for a run at contention in the AL West. While that might seem overly optimistic at first glance, it is important to keep in mind that the Angels significantly outperformed their Pythagorean Record in 2008: according to the club’s runs scored and runs allowed, the Angels “should” have finished 88-74, as opposed to 100-62. Adding Holliday’s bat to an oft-anemic offense, coupled with likely improvement from Daric Barton, the return to health of Travis Buck and perhaps something of a bounceback from Mark Ellis could be enough to push the Angels, especially if we’re talking about a post-Teixeira squad.

What exactly does Holliday’s move to the A’s mean for fantasy owners? The first, instantaneous reaction most will have is that Holliday’s numbers will plummet without a cozy, Coors-aided home ballpark. Holliday has hit a Herculean .357/.423/.645 at home, as opposed to a more tame .280/.348/.455 on the road, but I think we need to discuss the predictive value of home/road splits for a moment.

While there’s no denying that Coors Field is a significantly better hitting environment than Oakland’s McAfee Coliseum, throwing out Holliday’s home stats (i.e. half of his data sample) simply because of this is akin to throwing out the baby with the bath water. As Dave Cameron has pointed out, Holliday has been one of the better hitters in the game, even adjusting for the context of his home ballpark. From 2006-2008, Holliday has ranked 18th, 5th, and 10th, respectively, among all major league hitters in terms of WPA/LI. In terms of Equivalent Average (a Baseball Prospectus stat that also adjusts for home ballpark as well as base running prowess), Holliday has ranked 11th, 12th, and 11th, respectively, from 2006-2008. In other words, the 29 year-old is a top-15 hitter, regardless of where he plays his home games.

In addition to his patience and pop, Holliday has also shown wheels that belie his 6-4, 235 pound frame. The A’s are generally a conservative lot on the base paths (not a bad idea, considering the “break even” rate for SB’s is about 75%), but Holliday’s high-percentage thievery (28 for 30 in 2008, or 93.3%) should give him more autonomy than most.

Over the next few months, you’ll likely hear a lot about how Holliday’s numbers will fall precipitously now that he no longer has the thin Rocky Mountain air at his disposal. While his numbers may take somewhat of a downturn, do not mistake Holliday for a Coors Field creation: he’ll likely continue to rake and be a valuable commodity, both to fantasy owners and to the A’s.

Usually when a player adds 50 points of OPS to his ledger he sees an increase in his fantasy value. But Nick Markakis saw his OPS go from .847 to .897 and lost nearly $4.00 in production in 2008 according to the RotoTimes Player Rater. Markakis saw the reduction due to a 25-point drop in RBIs and a net loss of eight steals. Still, his 136 OPS+ ranks 19th among all players in their age-24 season since 1990 and marks a player that still has room for growth.

Most of Markakis’ OPS jump came thanks to an increase of 38 walks. His BB% surged to 14.3 percent, the 13th-best mark in the majors. None of his other peripherals changed a significant amount, although his FB% dropped from 37.4 percent to 32.9 percent.

Given his track record over his first three seasons in the majors, Markakis is a decent bet to post a .300 average with 100 runs and RBIs. The question is what he can give owners in HRs and SBs. His 18 stolen bases in 2007 was a professional best for Markakis and since he was successful on just 10 of 17 attempts last year it is unlikely he will be a threat to steal 20 bags in 2009.

His age-based comps at baseball-reference.com show a mixed bag, with four of the 10 players eventually having at least one 30-homer season in their career. But it’s a depressing list for a player with broad-based skills like Markakis, with early flameouts like Ben Grieve, Ellis Valentine and Steve Kemp on the list.

In 2008, 28 players hit 30 or more home runs and only two had a FB% like Markakis of less than 35 percent – Josh Hamilton and Carlos Delgado. Hamilton had a HR/FB rate of 19.2 percent while Delgado had a 23.3 percent mark in the category. Markakis had a 12.6 percent rate. If he is going to take the next step and become a 30-homer guy, Markakis will have to hit more flyballs and/or hit a greater percentage out of the park. It seems a tall order given his track record in those categories.

Everyone is convinced that Alex Rios is an impact fantasy player. The only question is why. In 2007, Rios scored 114 runs and hit 24 homers. Last year, much of his value came because he swiped a career-high 32 bases, or as many bags as he stole in 2006 and 2007 combined. Can Rios combine his home run output of 2007 and his stolen base totals of 2008 to be a top-10 fantasy guy?

In the first half of last season, Rios completely lost his power stroke. He hit just four home runs in 362 at-bats. But he compensated by swiping 23 bases. In the second half Rios’ power came back. He hit 11 home runs in 292 at-bats although he stole just nine bags after the break.

Rios hit more groundballs than flyballs last year. Also, his HR/FB rate fell to 7.4 percent. But as you can see by the GB/FB/LD chart, Rios hit many more fly balls (the blue line in the chart) in the second half, after his FB% fell beneath his LD% midway through the season.

What does it mean for 2009? Well, it is likely that his poor home run output in the first half was a random fluke. But we could easily conclude the same thing about his stolen base numbers, too. Expect more home runs than the 15 he hit in 2008. But do not expect a repeat of his stolen base numbers. Rios never stole 30 or more bases anywhere in his professional career in this country. A 20-20 season is reasonable. A 30-30 campaign is not.

Coming up through the minor league farm system, Pirates outfielder Nate McLouth seemed to fit the dreaded “fourth outfielder” archetype very well. A 25th-round selection in the 2000 amateur entry draft whom the Bucs managed to pry away from a Michigan scholarship, McLouth was viewed as possessing a good (but not great) bat and solid (but not center-field worthy) range. The main complaint about Nate was his power. (Generously) Listed at 5-11, 180 pounds, McLouth did not figure to have the pop to support his playing every day in a corner outfield spot.

Upon reaching AAA Indianapolis in 2005, McLouth appeared to affirm those extra outfielder predictions by batting .297/.364/.401. Nate showed a line-drive bat and excellent base running skills (34 SB, 8 CS) that figured to make him a well-rounded bench player, but the power was lacking (.104 ISO). McLouth got the call up to Pittsburgh late in the 2005 season and actually matched his AAA home run total (5) in just 120 PA with the Pirates, batting .257/.305/.450.

In 2006, Nate essentially filled that fourth outfielder role and had a difficult season, posting a .233/.293/.385 line in 297 PA. His walk rate dipped to 6.3% and his strikeout rate was rather high (21.9%), a surprising development for a guy who whiffed less than 14% of the time at the minor league level. Perhaps he was trying too hard to play the power-hitter’s game: he posted a decent .152 ISO, but it may have come at the expense of some hard swings and misses.

A funny thing happened in 2007. After once again filling the fourth outfielder role earlier in the season, McLouth was given a chance to play on a regular basis in August and September, and he exceeded most anyone’s expectations:

2007: 382 PA, .258/.351/.459, 10.6BB%, 23.4K%, .201 ISO, 16.4 LD%, .301 BABIP

A guy who barely managed a .100 ISO in the International League, McLouth posted an ISO exceeding .200 in ’07. His walk rate also improved, though his K rate crept a little bit higher. He was slightly lucky on balls put in play (his BABIP should have been about .284), but that’s not a huge difference. McLouth’s secondary skills were developing more than anyone had imagined, and he was just about the best base stealer in the game to boot (22 SB, 1 CS).

In spring training 2008, McLouth beat out Nyjer Morgan for the starting job in center field. Nate was a full-time player for the first time in his career, and he made the most of the opportunity:

2008: 685 PA, .276/.356/.497, 9.8BB%, 15.6K%, .221 ISO, 18.5 LD%, .291 BABIP

Nate’s 2.30 WPA/LI ranked 4th among center fielders and 17th among all outfielders, ahead of names such as Curtis Granderson and Vladimir Guerrero. His walk rate remained steady, and he significantly reduced his strikeout rate as well. McLouth’s contact percentages were 85.21% and 83.82% in 2006 and 2007, respectively, but he upped that number to 88.36% this past year. His ISO climbed to .221, which also ranked him ahead of Vlad and Granderson as well as Matt Holliday. Continuing his trend of stellar base running, Nate swiped 23 bases in 26 attempts. With 26 bombs and 23 steals, McLouth turned in a 20/20 season.

Given the opportunity to play on a regular basis and disprove his fourth outfielder status by new Pirates management, Nate McLouth turned in one of the better campaigns among all outfielders in 2008. While his Gold Glove Award was pretty dubious (John Dewan’s Plus/Minus system had him at -40 plays, 35th among CF’s) and he should likely defer center field to rangy prospect Andrew McCutchen, Nate has developed better power than anyone could have anticipated, given his minor league track record.

With two straight years of .200+ ISO’s, a solid walk rate, a reduced K rate and no fluky BABIP, it seems reasonable to think that he can retain this level of offensive performance going forward. Add in his nifty, high-percentage base stealing (he’s now 57 for 62 in the majors, or 91.9%) and you’re looking at a fantasy asset. Heading into his peak years (he just turned 27), McLouth has developed enough offensive ability that he could still be valuable as an everyday player in a corner outfield spot. Who would have thought that when he was slugging .401 in AAA?