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From a Fantasy Baseball perspective, a lot of people were high on Philadelphia Phillies newly acquired outfielder Ben Revere heading into the 2013 campaign. Through 22 games this season, the speedster is batting a poor .207 with just four RBI. Luckily for fantasy owners, he has already stolen a strong five bases, and is as a legitimate candidate to lead the majors in steals as there is out there.
So, since I am so high on him, I must ask; Why is he only owned in 54 % of Yahoo! leagues?
Well, owners are very impatient and frustrated with the lack of production from Revere. To those fantasy managers, I deliver a message; Relax! When you selected Revere on draft day, you know what you wanted and knew what you were getting out of him. A guy with no power whatsoever (0 career home runs), .280 batting average and around 30 RBI. Of course, the deal-breaker is that speed, having stole 74 bags over the past two seasons.
While he is currently dealing with a minor quadriceps injury, fantasy owners who are contemplating dropping Revere might want to reconsider. And owners who are seeing him on their league’s waiver wire should pick him up. His slow start dropped him to the seventh spot in the Phillies’ batting order, but Revere is a born lead off batter. I mean, he didn’t take a proven guy like Jimmy Rollins‘ lead off spot for nothing. The batting average will climb up sooner rather than later and with Carlos Ruiz already back and Delmon Young set to return soon, that entire offense will start clicking, resulting in terrific run potential whenever Revere regains the lead off role. Yes, I do plan on that happening.
At just 24-years old, Revere still has plenty of room to grow as a hitter. No, the power will never be there. But can this guy emerge into a better contact hitter with more RBI upside? I sure think so. The baseball season is a very long one, and I truly believe that we will see the positive, high upside version of Revere for the majority of it.
Adam Pfeifer is a featured fantasy sports columnist for Rant Sports.
You can follow him on Twitter @aPfeiferRS.
