Fantasy Baseball: Is Lorenzo Cain Able?

In 22 games and 73 at-bats, Kansas City outfielder Lorenzo Cain has had some mixed success. Is he able to make a contribution to your fantasy team?

Cain is hitting just .260 with a meager .301 on-base percentage. He has four walks compared to 16 strikeouts. His decent .452 slugging percentage, thanks to seven of his 19 hits going for extra bases, at least gets his OPS (.753) to a respectable level.

Cain has scored nine runs, slugged three home runs, and stolen a base. Where he has made his mark, though, has been in driving runners in. Cain has knocked in 15 runs in his limited playing time.

He is hitting left-handed pitching fairly well, posting a .318 batting average. Of his seven hits, however, just one went for extra bases.

Meanwhile he's struggling with contact (.235) against right-handed pitching, but half of his hits are for extra bases, giving him a better OPS (.771 vs. .770) despite the batting average discrepancy.

Cain's home-road splits are even more lopsided. He is hitting the cover off the ball at Kauffman Stadium with a .382 average and a 1.025 OPS. Meanwhile, on the road he's hitting just .154 with a .521 OPS.

Cain has had some success at the Triple-A level, hitting .306 with a .855 OPS in 621 at bats. He doesn't have a very high ceiling though.

Cain is owned in a little over half of ESPN fantasy leagues and about a quarter of Yahoo! ones. Given his dramatic splits, I would likely only use him on days when there aren't many games scheduled and he happens to be playing at home.

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