The Second Opinion Player-Profile Game, Question #1

Play the player-profile game every day this week at 11:30am ET. Each day, we’re giving away a free copy of the 2011 Second Opinion to the first reader who guesses correctly the identity of that day’s mystery player. (Limit one copy per customer).

After last year’s success with it, FanGraphs will once again be offering to the public its fantasy companion, The Second Opinion. Thanks to the vision of Marc Hulet, along with the hard work of many of FanGraphs’ own contributors, this year’s edition promises to build upon last season’s rookie effort, while still maintaining the white-hot analysis that is FanGraphs’ trademark.

Man-in-Charge David Appelman will have more details on the guide — set to be released this week — very shortly. In the meantime, however, it makes sense to offer some previews of what readers can expect from this year’s Second Opinion. These peeks promise to be especially sneaky as they’ll come in the form of the player-profile game I intoduced in these pages last offseason.

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.

For the first reader who guesses correctly (in the comments section below), we offer you — if you can even believe it — a free copy of this year’s Second Opinion. That’s probably, like, a $1000 value!

Today’s entry comes to us courtesy of David Golebiewski. (Note: Dave Cameron says it’s too easy, so just know that it’ll be especially embarrassing if you’re unable to get it.)

Who is it?

As a late-20s player who blasted big-league pitching in 2009 after half a decade of undistinguished Triple-A work, [BLANK’S] 2010 regression was more predictable than the plot of a Two and a Half Men episode. Splitting his season between first base and right field, [BLANK] didn’t really stand out as a power hitter (.167 ISO) and his walk rate fell from 11.2% in 2009 to 8.1%. He was a little unlucky, with a .274 BABIP, so he’s likely to hit closer to .270 than .250 moving forward. But even so, there’s not much reason to recommend him — [BLANK’S] secondary skills aren’t great for a guy playing positions where offensive excellence is expected. Also, [BLANK’S TEAM] might look for a platoon partner for [BLANK] at first base, as the lefty batter has a .210/.249/.381 line versus same-handed pitching in 350 PA and a .282/.359/.495 slash in 746 PA against right-handers. That [BLANK] figures to get most starts at first base again in 2011 says more about [BLANK’S TEAMMATE’S] disastrous season than anything else.