The Rangers placed secondbaseman Ian Kinsler on the disabled list with a stress fracture in his foot. The injury could sideline him from 3-6 weeks. During this time, the pain of losing a hitter with 14 HRs and 11 SBs will fade as the gain of losing a hitter with a .241 AVG strengthens. When that process is complete, Kinsler will become the same player he was this past winter - a sleeper at secondbase.
Why? Kinsler has an atrocious .243 BABIP. For those who believe in the near certainty of a hitter regressing to a BABIP in the .300 range, then Kinsler is the player to target for that late season run to the top of all the categories. In addition the regressing to the mean, I believe in Kinsler because he boosted his walk totals relative to his rookie campaign. After drawing 40 free passes in 423 ABs in 2006, Ian has already drawn 35 in just 263 at-bats this year.