ottoneu Hot Right Now: Lucas Duda

Once upon a time, there was a 1B/OF for the Mets, and that 1B/OF was one of the top sleepers in the fantasy baseball world. But our hero the sleeper never quite woke up. Oh sure, there were signs of a star in the making – a 780 OPS in April is nothing to sneeze at – but by the middle of the year, our hero was looking more and more the goat everyday, and woke up one morning no longer a Met and instead a Bison.

But he wouldn’t be our hero if he didn’t make a triumphant return and now he is re-donning his Mets uniform and trying to re-establish his value before 2012 comes to a close. By now you have surely guessed that our hero is Lucas Duda (either guessed or read the title of this article) and there is no one in the ottoneu-verse being auctioned more right now than Duda.

To be fair, Pedro Ciriaco is being auctioned the same amount, but since Mike Axisa covered him yesterday, we’ll focus on Duda today.

Plenty has been written about Duda on this site this year, but he found himself cut from quite a few rosters when the Mets sent him down (in addition to all the owners who cut him even before that point). Now a number of owners are trying to add him and many more (myself included) are deciding whether or not to take any solace in his return from Buffalo.

Well, if there is solace in the return, it doesn’t come from his minor league performance. 107 plate appearances over 25 games netted him a .260/.327/.396 line with 3 HR. You can maybe accept that average or on-base from an OF in ottoneu, but the power numbers are not impressive and this was against triple-A pitching.

Now a month is only a month – but this month happens to match his previous three months. He struck out less during his demotion, but he also walked less, had a lower ISO, and, in total, put up basically the same line he had during his half season in the bigs: .239/.335/.388.

As a Duda owner, I was hoping to see him head down to Buffalo, knock around some pitchers who weren’t ready for his Major League bat, and have a shot to re-establish himself for the stretch run in the NL East. Instead, our hero the sleeper continued to slumber and has left ottoneu owners in a quandry – give the 26-year-old another shot or let someone else win the auction?

I’m not ready to cut Duda just yet, but if he weren’t on my roster, I don’t think I’d be anxious to cut anyone loose to make room for him. And if the next week or two doesn’t go well, Duda may find himself sleeping his way right off my roster if I need to bolster my team for a shot at a title.