Second Opinion Player-Profile Game: Question #2

Play the player-profile game again tomorrow (Friday) at 11:30am ET. We’re giving away a free copy of the 2012 Second Opinion to the first reader who guesses correctly the identity of that day’s mystery player. (Limit one copy per customer).

As announced yesterday, FanGraphs will once again be offering to the public its fantasy companion guide, The Second Opinion. We’ll have more details on the guide — set to be released on Monday — very shortly.

In the meantime, however, we’re playing the player-profile game I intoduced in these pages a couple offseasons ago.

The game is easy: one person (me, in this case) offers the text of single player profile, being careful to omit any proper names that might reveal the identity of the player in question. The other person (you, the reader) attempts to identify the player using only the details provided in the profile.

First reader to guess correctly (in the comments section below) gets a free copy of this year’s Second Opinion — approximately a $1000 value!

Today’s entry comes to us courtesy of Mr. Patrick Dubuque.

Who is it?

How you feel about baseball’s favorite Chris Elliott look-alike is probably dependent on your expectations. Before the season, [BLANK] was a Quad-A nobody; by August he was [BLANK’S TEAM’S] second-best hitter. (Snickering is allowed.) He cooled badly in September, however, and his statistics are riddled with red flags. His new aggressive approach uncovered surprising power, but it also caused him to strike out more than four times as much as he walked. His batting average on balls in play is unsustainable (although buoyed by a strong 24.8% line-drive rate). His defense is best described as earnest, which will cut into his playing time. In fact, the fan poll and the Bill James predictions are nearly identical, except that the fans expect 548 plate appearances, and James guesses 292. Split the difference and assume fifteen home runs and a .250-.260 average. Deeper benches and ottoneu leagues could use a piece like this at the right price, even if he doesn’t have much upside beyond.