The Situation - Jason Heyward
By: mbohn
Apparently there is a show called Jersy Shore, and on this show there is someone named or called "The situation". I have no clue who he is, or what he is about. What I do know is that a lot of fantasy baseball players are wondering what to do wth Jason Heyward. Well, the situtation breaks down like this, Jason Heyward is going to be an impact player this fantasy season. The question is when will that begin?
With Heyward mashing in Spring Training to a .375 average in his eight at-bats. Here is a breakdown of Heyward's stats so far:
| Date |
ab |
h |
AVG |
so |
bb |
r |
| 2-Mar |
1 |
1 |
1.000 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
| 3-Mar |
2 |
1 |
0.666 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| 4-Mar |
2 |
0 |
0.400 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 5-Mar |
3 |
1 |
0.375 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Totals |
8 |
3 |
0.375 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
| rbi |
hr |
sb |
cs |
e |
2b |
HBP |
| 0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
| 0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| 1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 2 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
One thing that pops out is the fact that dude has drawn three walks, and been hit by a pitch. That puts his OBP at .583 over the course of his four Spring Training appearances. Heyward is also showing that he can lay off the curve, and has yet to strike out.
Sure, he has not sent a ball over the left fied wall yet. No worries, it will not be long before he dials a heater into the parking lot. The fact that he is not swinging for the fences is another thing that has to impress Bobby Cox. Oh, and he has not made any errors so far, but I could not find any data on how many chances he has had so that may not be telling us anything. It's worth pointing out, in the least.
So what should you do with Heyward? I hope to own him, myself. He is currently being drafted the 49th outfielder off the board in ESPN leagues, being drafted in the 18th round on average for 10 team leagues, and 15th round for 12 squad ones. However, his stock has soared this week, as his ownership has gone up 16 points to 96%.
Over at Yahoo, however, dude is only owned in 54% of all leagues as I type this. I think the ESPN numbers are more telling right now, and that the Yahoo ones will begin to go up as well. Of course, this depends on whether or not Heyward can keep swinging the lumber like he has shown so far. If he can keep his average up all Spring, the Braves will be hard pressed to keep dude in Gwinnett.
There is the Super Two factor, however. If the Braves call Heyward up before June 1st, he can acrue enough playing time to become a Super Two player. This basically means he would be eligible for arbitration four times rather then the standard three. If Heyward is as good as hyped, the Braves will have no choice but to bite the financial bullet on this one, right? I mean, they did what was in the season's best interest last year by keeping Tommy Hanson in AAA until June, right? Right...