Indians third baseman Jose Ramirez primed for another big year in 2020. Can the Tribe slugger get off to a better start than in 2019, and parlay that into a solid fantasy baseball season for owners?
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00:00 The Major League Baseball season could be starting later this summer, but fantasy baseball
00:05 owners are drafting right now.
00:07 At least some of you are.
00:08 I'm Corey Parson, the fantasy executive here for SI.com.
00:11 Get ready to talk a little Cleveland Indian baseball.
00:14 I'm joined by SI fantasy and gambling analyst, Sean Childs, and Cleveland baseball insider,
00:19 Matt Lodi.
00:20 Matt, last season we saw Jose Ramirez kind of struggle.
00:25 What do you think his chances are to bounce back this year?
00:27 Corey, I think he really does have a great opportunity with this ball club.
00:31 He was actually coming around and hitting the ball very well when he got injured last
00:35 year in the last month of the season.
00:37 Still ended the year hitting .255 with 23 home runs.
00:40 A lot of people thought that he fell in love with the home run swing the year before when
00:43 he ended up hitting 39 home runs and driving in 105 runs, and he was over swinging.
00:49 He shortened his swing a little bit last year in the month of July, started to come around
00:52 a little bit, and was probably the best hitter on the team when he got injured.
00:56 I think he's going to have a good season for the Indians, and I think his attitude and
00:59 his energy is infectious with this ball club.
01:02 Sean, what do you think about Ramirez from a Roto baseball perspective?
01:08 Yeah, like Matt said, the first month of the season he kind of struggled, had a broke hand
01:12 late in the year, but really, really he was special for about 34, 35 games after July.
01:18 But the trick here is that he's a guy that wants to hit fly balls.
01:22 He's really kind of pushed the fly ball rate higher over the last couple of years, which
01:25 really, really helps his power, but it also leads to some easier outs.
01:29 His contact batting for me the last two years, 313, 301, so when you look at that, you're
01:34 like, the highest he possibly could hit is 313 or 301 if everything was in play.
01:38 So that's why his batting average is kind of trailing.
01:40 And his career started a lot better in that area.
01:43 He has a good approach.
01:44 He'll take walks, doesn't strike out much.
01:46 So if it all comes back together where his contact batting average shifts back over 350,
01:50 he's going to be a five category player.
01:52 So it's all about the power here and the batting average, but he has the skillset to come on
01:56 and he, and he, and the speed is really, really a bonus with this type of player.
02:00 All right.
02:01 Thanks a lot, Sean.
02:02 Thanks a lot, Matt.
02:03 For the latest from the majors and fantasy baseball, make sure you keep it tuned right
02:07 here to si.com.
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