Fantasy Baseball Profile: What to Make of James Loney?

You know he can hit for average. He has a .295 career average, topping out at .331 in 2007.

You know he can drive in runners. He has 90 RBI in each of his past two seasons.

A near .300 hitter capable of 90 RBI who will turn 26 this year—so why isn’t James Loney among my top 20 fantasy first basemen (click to see the list)?

Because he has just 45 HRs in 1,617 ABs.

He hits a HR once every 36 ABs, or roughly once every nine games. That sounds like something a middle infielder would do. It’s not like he’s even banging out a bunch of extra-base hits to make up for it. His OPS numbers the past two years have been .772 and .756.

If he were making up for his lack of power with a .310-plus average, he’d interest me more. If he scored more runs, I’d have more interest. He has averaged just 69.5 runs the past two years despite averaging 585.5 ABs.

Really the only thing he has going for him is his RBI total, and even that isn’t an elite number. I will give him a little credit for averaging seven SBs the past two years.

When all is said and done, I would consider him a backup first baseman. Of course, I’d prefer someone with position flexibility, like Jorge Cantu (3B), or someone with more upside, like Chris Davis.

Prediction: .300, 80 Runs, 15 HRs, 90 RBI, seven SBs

Past Profiles

Arizona Diamondbacks: Brandon Webb
Atlanta Braves: Yunel Escobar
Baltimore Orioles: Adam Jones
Boston Red Sox: Clay Buchholz
Chicago Cubs: Geovany Soto
Chicago White Sox: Jake Peavy
Cincinnati Reds: Joey Votto  
Cleveland Indians: Grady Sizemore
Colorado Rockies: Ubaldo Jimenez
Detroit Tigers: Miguel Cabrera
Florida Marlins: Cameron Maybin
Houston Astros: Lance Berkman
Kansas City Royals: Billy Butler
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: Howie Kendrick

Originally published at LestersLegends.com.