What are Fantasy Baseball owners to make of Lucas Duda? After yesterday’s two home run performance the question begs to be asked. Is “The Dude” just an oversized doubles hitter, or an emerging power hitting star? Currently starting in just 64% of lineups in CBSSportsline leagues, clearly the jury is still out…
One of the more interesting factors that fantasy owners should consider is the fact that Duda qualifies in most leagues as an outfielder and also first baseman /corner infielder. This type of flexibility is always a plus when composing a fantasy roster. The other attention-grabbing factor is that the New York Mets have moved the home run fence at Citi Field in this season in an effort to resurrect the power numbers of David Wright, Jayson Bay (not certain that it matters anymore) and the rest of the Mets as the previously pitching favorite dimensions clearly had them beaten before they stepped up to the plate. There is a new eight-foot fence placed in front of the old 16-foot wall in left field and the dimensions have been reduced in both right and right-center field as well. In many cases the new wall is up to 12 feet closer to home plate.
In yesterday’s game against the Atlanta Braves, Duda’s first HR would have dinged against the old home run wall in right center. His second home run would have been out regardless. How many home runs will the more favorable dimensions add this add to Duda’s HR total? In two games it’s already one. Could it add 10? Most pundits had Duda projected to hit about 20 HRs and 85 RBI. Does this now turn him into a 30 HR – 100 RBI guy?
There are 80 more home games for the Mets and the new ball park dimensions will no doubt have an effect on the stats of many of the Mets players; positive for the hitters and negative for the pitchers. I’m not suggesting that you pick up Ruben Tejada and trade Johan Santana, but taking an in depth at Lucas Duda and how he may fit on your team’s roster may prove to be worth your time.
The founder and former owner of MC3 Sports Media, Mike Cardano is the Sr. Business Administrator for RotoExperts and the Executive Director here at TheXLog.com. You may email Mike @ michael.cardano@rotoexperts.com or follow him on Twitter @MikeCardano. Listen to Mike on Sirius XM Fantasy Sports Radio with Scott Engel and the morning crew Tuesday mornings at 10am ET.