#TBT- Carlos Santana, 1B/DH, Cleveland Indians
@Hoover__26 June 16
I’m coming at you live this week from Cooperstown, NY, the home of baseball, and drawing inspiration from some of the biggest landmarks in the game. Today, I took in the atmosphere at Doubleday Field, dubbed the “birthplace of baseball”. This historic park has seen some of the greats of the game over its vast history, and still stands as an incredible venue for the game of baseball. In essence, it is the game’s ultimate throwback. Now, Carlos Santana (of the Indians, not the musically gifted one) is also one of the game’s throwbacks, and this week’s #TBT is always finding ways to keep his game unique.
In all honesty, I can’t remember the last time a switch hitting catcher/first baseman/DH who bats .226 was even fantasy viable, much less in the top 50 in fantasy points scored for batters. Santana has proven that he is one of the most consistent hitters in the game, swinging the stick at an average of .231 in both 2014 and 2015. I just wish he was more consistently good. He is batting a career low in average, yet is 6 spots higher in fantasy points scored for first basemen than his average draft position amongst his position (10th in points scored, 16th in ADP on espn.com drafts). How he is able to pull that off, I don’t know.
Santana is on pace to top his career high in home runs, and score more runs than he has since 2011. While his RBIs are down, Santana is putting up one of his best fantasy years. But incredibly, aside from very recently where Santana has been on a tear, he has been slumping at the plate this season. He’s batting .333 in his last five games, but only .211 in the five before that (even by Santana standards that’s low). But, amazingly, Santana is having a throwback year to the early 2010s when he was one of baseball’s most fun and talented players. He was once even 15th in MVP voting (that was in 2013, when he batted .268).
This week’s #TBT keeps surprising us with his ability to, for lack of a better term, pull a fantasy baseball rabbit out of the deep and mysterious hat. Hopefully, he can get back into form and skyrocket even higher up the fantasy leaderboards.
In all honesty, I can’t remember the last time a switch hitting catcher/first baseman/DH who bats .226 was even fantasy viable, much less in the top 50 in fantasy points scored for batters. Santana has proven that he is one of the most consistent hitters in the game, swinging the stick at an average of .231 in both 2014 and 2015. I just wish he was more consistently good. He is batting a career low in average, yet is 6 spots higher in fantasy points scored for first basemen than his average draft position amongst his position (10th in points scored, 16th in ADP on espn.com drafts). How he is able to pull that off, I don’t know.
Santana is on pace to top his career high in home runs, and score more runs than he has since 2011. While his RBIs are down, Santana is putting up one of his best fantasy years. But incredibly, aside from very recently where Santana has been on a tear, he has been slumping at the plate this season. He’s batting .333 in his last five games, but only .211 in the five before that (even by Santana standards that’s low). But, amazingly, Santana is having a throwback year to the early 2010s when he was one of baseball’s most fun and talented players. He was once even 15th in MVP voting (that was in 2013, when he batted .268).
This week’s #TBT keeps surprising us with his ability to, for lack of a better term, pull a fantasy baseball rabbit out of the deep and mysterious hat. Hopefully, he can get back into form and skyrocket even higher up the fantasy leaderboards.