We interpret stats like .300/100/30/100/30 the same in a ball player. We want those stats for any ball player we draft.
And we all see those numbers the same.
But, we each interpret injury differently for every player.
Jose Reyes has played a full season once in the last five years. He still gets a pass and is a constant second round adp'er.
Why?
I don't know.
Maybe we think of him as unlucky, more than chronic. Kevin Youkilis is on the other side of this reckoning.
He is even beyond chronic. When seemingly not having an injury, it seems he'll conjure one.
We give Youkilis no slack. He plays first base, a position that may have the least risk of injury on the field.
Youkilis is not athletic, more sloth-like in his movements. His injury risk through athleticism should be minimal.
Yet every year, we don't think we'll see Youkilis on the injured list, we KNOW we will see him there.
I'm liking Reyes less and less as a fantasy option. Especially in the second round. Even his full year of health two years ago yielded these numbers: .287/86/11/56/40
Except for a few homers, those are Elvis Andrus type stats, and Andrus can be gotten two or three rounds later.....without the injury bugaboo that Reyes can't seem to elude.
Personally, I think Reyes is taken out of memory more than for what he did last year or the year before's stats.
He is ingrained in our minds as a top shortstop. Somehow, he gets a pass for his injury woes.
Again, why?
And again, I don't know.
It could just be the position itself. Shortstop sucks as a fantasy position.
Year after year, the three best fantasy shortstops to draft are Tulo, Hanley, and Reyes.
Do you see the similarities?
Most of us would rather draft a shortstop KNOWING their will be greater chance of injury, than draft a shortstop KNOWING injury chances are less, simply because the shortstops with less injury risks...well...suck.
This year, a new shortstop has been drafted in the first three rounds. Jean Segura.
Segura started last season like Hanley.
Flamed out till he looked like Elvis.
Then further flamed out looking like Reyes, and ending his year hurt.
Athletic shortstops can't seem to stay healthy.
Maybe it is our thinking that it don't matter who we draft at shortstop, he'll probably get hurt anyway.
With this line of thinking, it makes clear that Tulo and Hanley are the top picks.
We don't draft shortstops with RBI/Runs in mind. We draft them for HR/SB.
This is evident with Segura. Segura had as many runs scored as Zack Cozart and had less rbi than Alcides Escobar.
Most don't care.
We focus on those two categories, HR/SB, thinking the other two will follow. It's not always so.
Many also expect Segura will be a fantasy stud for years. I don't think so.
I see him being more Elvis-like than Hanley-like.
Segura hit only one homer over the last three months of the season.
And he only reached ten homers as a high during his minor league seasons.
In a word, shortstops are a bitch.
When we over draft them, they kill us with injury.
When we under draft them, we are stuck looking at stats that look putrid.
And, no matter whether under or over drafting them, we depend on the one factor we hate to depend on.
Luck.
