Welcome back to the 2015 Last Word on Fantasy Baseball Guide. Over the next several months we will be releasing player profiles, projections, position rankings, and a number of other articles that will help you dominate your fantasy league this season. Whether you play rotisserie or head-to-head; whether you have a standard draft, a snake or an auction league, and whether its keeper league or a one-year deal; we have all the fantasy information you need.
For the rest of our fantasy baseball profiles and articles, please check out our Fantasy Baseball Guide Page
FANTASY PROFILE: KENNYS VARGAS, 1B, MINNESOTA TWINS
Kennys Vargas is quite a large man, and he has the boom stick to back it up. The 6’5”, 275 lb. Puerto Rican burst onto the scene in the last couple months of the 2014 season by blasting 9 homers in just 53 games for the Minnesota Twins, earning several comparisons to Big Papi himself. His issue, like many sluggers, is that he swings too much and doesn’t make contact often enough.
He has no issue making contact when the ball is in the strike zone (and when he does, it goes pretty far), but he swings far too often at pitches thrown outside the strike zone. In the small sample size we got from him last year, he swung at about 41% of pitches outside of the strike zone, which was one of the worst rates in the majors. When you combine that with his aggressive plate approach (he swung at 55% of ALL the pitches he saw), you’re usually going to get a high K% and low BB%, which is never a good thing for your AVG or OBP.
The good news is Vargas is only 24 and has a lot of room for growth. Plate discipline is something that can be improved over time with practice, and Vargas’ power has proven be legitimate enough to keep him in the lineup until he figures things out. He has a great mentor for plate discipline on the Twins in Joe Mauer, who, by the way, should get most of the playing time at 1B, meaning Vargas will get most of the PAs at DH, allowing him to focus on improving his bat. He will be a nice fantasy sleeper at 1B/DH in 2015.
| Year | Team | Pos | G | PA | AB | R | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| 2014 | MIN | 1B | 53 | 234 | 215 | 26 | 9 | 38 | 0 | 12 | 63 | 0.274 | 0.316 | 0.456 | 0.772 |
| 2015 Projection | MIN | 1B | 595 | 537 | 73 | 22 | 83 | 0 | 48 | 161 | 0.245 | 0.310 | 0.425 | 0.735 |
For the rest of our fantasy baseball profiles and articles, please check out our Fantasy Baseball Guide Page.
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CLEVELAND, OH – SEPTEMBER 9: Kennys Vargas #19 of the Minnesota Twins hits an RBI double during the fourth inning against the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field on September 9, 2014 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
