Big Papi Offers Huge Upside in Fantasy Baseball

Disclosure - I hate jamming my utility spot early in fantasy baseball drafts. It really can hurt some opportunities to maximize value later in the draft or during the fantasy baseball season.

That said I think David Ortiz (pictured in 1997 Fleer Ultra rookie card) has huge upside this season. Mock Draft Central currently has him going 49th which is a late 5th round pick in 10 team leagues and an early 4th in the NFBC format.

Ortiz struggled through a wrist injury for most of last season which killed his stats across the board. He just turned 33 in November so many believe that this is the beginning of the end for Big Papi. The prognosis through the winter is that the wrist is feeling fine and he's expected to be 100% for the start of the season. Also, since he only DH's I like his chance to stay moderately healthy.

I think it's obvious that David Ortiz's best days are behind him but even if we look at 2007 and revise his stats down slightly we could be looking at a stat line of ~35 HRs, 200 runs+RBIs and a batting average of 290+. These are basically Mark Teixeira numbers more than 30 picks later. I think Big Papi is a great buy low for fantasy baseball in 2009.

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