2011 Fantasy Baseball Sleeper: Ian Desmond 2B/SS

Time to take a look at another fantasy baseball sleeper for the upcoming season and today we look at Washington Nationals 2B/SS Ian Desmond and why he makes a nice late value in all drafts. Desmond is coming off a quietly good 2010 season where he swatted 10 home runs with 17 stolen bases batting toward the top of the Nationals lineup. With that solid line as a backdrop, Desmond is someone of interest for fantasy baseball players at both the shortstop and second base position and so lets take a close look at what could be in store for this season.

As we head into the 2011 campaign, Desmond is still a pup at only 26 years old and so he still has talent that has not been touched. Looking at his stats from last season, its easy to see that Desmond possesses the always coveted power/speed combo that wets the appetite of fantasy baseball players everywhere. He also was no slouch in the rest of the categories as he scored 65 runs with 59 RBI while hitting .269. A solid season of growth indeed.

Now looking a little deeper at Desmond's game, there are some issues that need to be cleared up before he becomes an upper level commodity. For one, Desmond is a much better hitter against lefties than righties as he showed in both of seasons in the majors so far. Those who have these kind of splits run into some average problems and so the .260 Desmond hit last season is about where he will be unless he improves his mark against righties. Think of Brandon Phillips as a good comparison. Phillips has always been much better against lefties in his career and so his batting averages have hovered in the .270-.285 range which is good but not great. Another problem is that Desmond strikes out a bit too much with 109 K's in 525 at-bats last season. That too will impact his batting average in a negative way and so more growth here is needed as well. Finally another problem that doesn't directly affect his fantasy baseball stats is the fact Desmond led the National League in errors at second base last season and so he much make inroads there or else the threat of being removed late in games for defense or even losing some starts as a result could be possible. This obviously would cut down on his plate appearances which in turn cuts down on his counting stats. This needs to be watched.

All in all, the tools are there for Desmond to be a sneaky good option at both shortstop and second base this fantasy baseball season. He should add some more pop as he further grows into his body and the steals are already solid. At such shallow positions that he qualifies in, Desmond makes a nice late round target who can easily excel his draft value.

2011 PROJECTION: .275 BA 74 R 14 HR 65 RBI 19 SB