Who Would You Rather Have: Mark Reynolds Or Kevin Youkilis??

by Ray Guilfoyle on Feb 3, 2010 12:00 PM EST in Baseball

In his annual Baseball Forecaster, Ron Shandler provides fantasy owners with a projected snake draft for a 15 team, mixed league. The draft is a 30 round draft, and in the 3rd round, he projects Red Sox third baseman Kevin Youkilis to be drafted before the Diamondbacks third sacker Mark Reynolds.

I don't agree with that and here are their stats for 2009:

Name	AB	2B	HR	R	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AVG	OBP	SLG
Mark Reynolds	578	30	44	98	102	76	223	24	0.260	0.349	0.553
Kevin Youkilis	491	36	27	99	94	77	125	7	0.305	0.413	0.548

Reynolds combination of power and speed is more valuable to fantasy owners than Youkilis ability to hit for average to go along with his solid power. Now I am not sure we see a 44-24 season out of Reynolds in 2010, but I think he can still go 35-17. Drafting a guy with 20-20, or even 30-20, possibilities is a smarter move than a 25-10 hitter.

Bill James projects Youkilis to go 23-95-98-6-.289-.394-.492 in 2010, while he has Reynolds going 40-107-103-18-.268-.356-.551. I think Reynolds has a real shot at stealing 20 bases again, as AJ Finch lets his hitters run last year, and I think it continues.

Poll

Who would you rather draft in 2010-Kevin Youkilis or Mark Reynolds?

Youkilis-solid numbers across the board, except for SBs

112 votes

Reynolkds-40-20 possibilities in 2010

105 votes

217 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

Youkillis

If I was building a solid, always producing team, I would take Youk, but Reynolds is pretty good, too. It’s a really tough choice.

by sal007 on Feb 3, 2010 2:23 PM EST reply actions

-1

not tough at all – Youk all the way!

by rmarx on Feb 3, 2010 11:21 PM EST up reply actions

I don't know how that's -1

If I was saying both are good, but I would rather have youk

by sal007 on Feb 4, 2010 6:56 PM EST up reply actions

In this case, I’d take the upside over the consistency.

When you have upside of 40/20 in the infield, I love you.

by Ian, yo on Feb 3, 2010 4:10 PM EST reply actions

"Joe's Job -- The Ballad Of Terry Francona"

For chucks and giggles, check out the following link:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvVZQnELQ9s

It’s must-see for Boston and Yankee fans alike! ;-)

by nyyankeefanforever on Feb 3, 2010 4:53 PM EST reply actions

Hmmmm

Real baseball…. Youk
First half of season in Fantasy…. Youk
OW Reynolds

by Bob_24798 on Feb 3, 2010 8:06 PM EST reply actions

Youk

No reason to risk the AVG.

by faketeams on Feb 4, 2010 9:41 AM EST reply actions

40/20 potential is reason to risk the average.

by Ian, yo on Feb 5, 2010 11:11 AM EST up reply actions

Over at MockDraftCentral.com

Reynolds is going somewhere in the mid to late 2nd early 3rd round, Youk a round or two later. It’s for that reason I’ll take youk. I play H2H, and in H2H streakiness and a low .BA will absolutely KILL you.

by Killface on Feb 7, 2010 12:58 PM EST reply actions