Deep League Thoughts: Chris Coghlan, the fantasy lifehack

You know those lifehacks? Buzzfeed features them all the time. You know, use the tab from a soft drink to double your closet space. Use Doritos as kindling. Put a dryer sheet over a window A/C unit.

It's a simple premise. Take something that is useful in one way, make it further useful in another way. And it's exactly what Joe Maddon has done to make Chris Coghlan fantasy palatable.

Coghlan, as a fantasy outfielder, is fine. Whatever. If your starter gets hurt and you need someone for a few days, you could do way worse. But as a second baseman? Well, then my ears perk up.

Coghlan played two games in his career at second base before this year, eight at third. I have in my head some memory of him as a 3B-eligible player, which must have been in 2013 under the generous player eligibility of Yahoo!, but I can't imagine he's ever been eligible at second (one game in 2009, one in 2013, and that was it before this year). By virtue of Starlin Castro's badness, Kyle Schwarber's goodness and Joe Maddon's creativeness, though, Coghlan has earned second-base eligibility in recent weeks.

Already this year, Coghlan has set career highs in homers and steals. He'll get there in RBI and walks. A hot September could give him a career-high in slugging percentage and OPS+. He won't best his career numbers in batting average and hits only because he was basically Ichiro during his 2009 rookie season (y'all remember he won Rookie of the Year? That's crazy), but since joining the Cubs, Coghlan has gone from almost out of the bigs to a perfectly viable hitter.

Coghlan is owned in 17 percent of Yahoo! leagues. Like I said, as an outfielder, that's cool. Makes sense. But as a second baseman? He's much more exciting. And he's much more available than a lot of guys.

Also, a wet paper towel around a room-temperature drink, ten minutes in the freezer, and your drink is cold! Voila!