Fantasy Profile: David Freese, 3B, Los Angeles Angels

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.

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Fantasy Profile: David Freese, 3B, Los Angeles Angels

LWOS Ranking 24, Captain’s Value: $3.00

Aside from a completely out of line 2012 season where he hit 20 HR, you can bank on what David Freese is going to produce in HR, combined Runs & RBI and 25 games missed — he has produced at a pace of pretty much 10 HR and 110 R+RBI for much of his career while missing 28, 24, 18 & 65 games over the past four seasons. The thing that has turned Freese from a Top 10 round pick into a fantasy afterthought is the collapse of his solid AVG; after posting three straight seasons in the .290 range (.296, .297, .293), his AVG tumbled down to .262 in 2013 and failed to rebound last season with a .260 figure.

There is nothing to suggest Freese’s first few years were fluky in the AVG department as he was a .300 hitter at every stop in the Minor Leagues, and his indicators have not changed all that much, so what should we expect out of Freese in 2015? I do not expect a full rebound back to his early AVG totals, but a rebound into the mid-.270 range would not be surprising (seven additional hits last year would have put him at .275, that is about one more hit a month).

A line of .275 with 11 HR, 55 R, and 60 RBI would put him around the 20^th ranked 3B in 2015, that is a solid CI option in 15-team leagues yet he is currently being picked in the reserve rounds at an ADP of 391 (early Round 27). That is an undrafted range in most 12-team formats, yet he can be a valuable stopgap as the second Third Basemen on your roster. Many people make the mistake of bypassing players like Freese to go after a sleeper pick who is unlikely to produce any value to your roster – rather than making this mistake, do the prudent thing and grab a veteran like Freese for your bench and be happy you have an active player to plug into your 3B or CI slot when you have an injury.

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