Fantasy Baseball: Should You Bail on Oakland A's Second Baseman Jemile Weeks?

The role of the leadoff hitter can be one of the toughest in baseball. After all, it is typically the leadoff man’s responsibility to jump-start the offense of the team, proverbially setting the table for the brunt of the batting order hitting behind him.

That onus can be quite heavy, however, because the performance of the entire offense is often attributed to how well or poorly the leadoff hitter is doing. He's tagged with credit and blame depending on if the team is scoring runs or not.

Oakland Athletics leadoff man Jemile Weeks is no different. The second-year second baseman came into the 2012 campaign with high expectations, following a 2011 rookie year in which he batted .303 with 26 doubles, eight triples and 22 stolen bases in only 97 games. That type of production was so impressive to the A’s coaching staff that they felt confident moving him to the top of the lineup full-time in 2012.

Weeks has serious speed on the base paths, which, combined with his surprising power to the gaps, gives him the ability to turn ordinary singles into doubles and pedestrian doubles into triples. Obviously, that speed bodes well for his stolen bases totals as well, which is an essential ingredient to being a successful leadoff hitter.

Initially, Weeks was not projected to be a high-pick second baseman in fantasy drafts, with Tristan Cockcroft ranking him the 15th-best second baseman in an ESPN.com mock draft. This is mostly due to the fact that he's stuck in a middling Oakland offense with very few bona fide power hitters behind him. When Weeks gets on base, A's hitters aren't driving him home, as evidenced by his 50 runs scored in 97 games last season (projected to 83 runs scored in a 162-game season). Fantasy experts were wary of whether Weeks could be of value if he's not scoring runs.

But obviously, Weeks' speed is an asset to help him accumulate extra-base hits and stolen bases, which can make up for his lack of raw power in the home run department. With a full season at second base on the horizon, the best was projected to come for the 25-year-old second baseman.

Unfortunately, Weeks has gotten out of the gate extremely slowly to begin the 2012 season. Through 18 games, Weeks' slash line reads an abysmal .200/.259/.360, and he only has eight runs scored and three runs batted in. Terrible.

And his weak performance is directly affecting the pathetic production by the Oakland offense as a whole.

But is it time to quit on Weeks as a fantasy owner? If you even have him on your roster, would you be willing to put him on waivers so quickly into the season?

After all, Weeks has not gotten on base as frequently as a leadoff hitter should, which is paramount in improving the rest of his stats. He walks at a low rate, which is why his on-base percentage—even for his career—is not overly impressive. Fewer times on base begets fewer stolen bases which begets fewer runs scored. That's not the exact formula, but it's pretty close.

However, though Weeks is off to a sluggish start, you'd be lucky to have him in the long run. Once he gets going, he can truly be an asset if your roster is thin on stolen bases and extra-base hits. Weeks has a 46.7 extra-base hit percentage (seven out of 15), and he still has a three stolen bases to his name. He is driving the ball a bit better on the whole, but it'd be nice to see him drop a few bunts down to try to ignite his offense a bit more.

All in all, however, it's obvious, he's hasn't been serviceable on a weekly basis—something he was all of last season, which was a huge boon for fantasy owners. His two worst slumps from last season were a 9-for-39 (.230) stretch in his first month in the big leagues and a 6-for-32 (.188) dip in late July. Other than that, Weeks was fairly consistent, never going three consecutive games without a hit. That pattern has so far carried over to 2012—he simply just hasn't been able to string together multiple multi-hit games to push him further above the Mendoza line.

To be sure, Weeks' weakness is his inability to draw bases on balls, which does him no favors in the on-base percentage department. Increasing his patience at the plate will help Weeks do the most damage running the bases and scoring runs. The true test will be whether the hitters behind him can boost their own slow performances.

Unfortunately for fantasy owners who have Weeks, there aren't many other options at second base. As it stands now, among qualifying second basemen, Weeks ranks 19th out of 24 in batting average. But, those second basemen who are slightly ahead of him are just that—merely so.

For instance, Neil Walk of the Pittsburgh Pirates is batting .240 but has only two runs scored and no extra-base hits. Dustin Ackley of the Seattle Mariners has fewer extra-base hits than Weeks, fewer walks and fewer stolen bases. Furthermore, though he's batting .242, like Weeks, Ackley has a smallish .619 OPS. Mark Ellis, who Weeks replaced in the Oakland A's lineup last season, is 11th in batting average for second basemen, but he only has three extra-base hits and a couple of runs batted in. 

Clearly, there aren't many other choices out there at the moment.

At the moment, Weeks is not a strong option. But in the weeks ahead, he'll eventually turn around his season and move up the list of the top second basemen in baseball.

Don't sit him. Don't trade him. Just be patient.

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