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When you’re talking prospects in MLB, it’s hard not to look at Royals 3B to be [tag]Alex Gordon[/tag]. It looks as if Gordon is going to be given every opportunity in Spring Training to lock down the 3B job, closing out his prospect status and moving him into his Rookie of the Year candidacy. However, the question remains, where do you draft a guy who hasn’t had a major league at bat and still isn’t a 100% lock to start the year at 3B for the Royals?

Just for numbers sake, I want to show you his AA Wichita numbers as well as some projections for his 2007 year.

AA Wichita

2006 - 130G, 480AB, 158H, 39Doubles, 29HR, 101RBI, .325/.426/.588

2007 Projections

ZiPS - .275/.361/.473 491AB, 135H, 35Doubles, 20HR, 15SB

CHONE - .273/.353/.465 485AB, 133H, 31Doubles, 19HR, 16SB

Now those projections are pretty close and also should put a smile on the fans of the KC Royals. Using thos projections, let see where Gordon stands against other third basemen in three categories.

HR: Gordon (20) vs. Encarnacion (20), Mora (20) & Inge (20)

SB: Gordon (16) vs. Wright (17) & ARod (16)

AVG: Gordon (.274) vs. Encarnacion (.275), Beltre (.275) & Lowell (.277)

Now, before my inbox fills with hate mail, I am not comparing Alex Gordon to David Wright or Alex Rodriguez. However, Gordon does seem to be a good fit in comparison to Edwin Encarnacion. In fact, he’s Encarnacion to a tee with more SB potential. So, where do you draft him?

In mixed leagues you can place Gordon in the low teens on the third basemen rankings and start looking at drafting him in the 13-14th round of a 23 round, 12 team snake draft. You’ll most likely be able to wait a bit longer than that, but start looking at how the third base board looks around the 13th round. (In my first Yahoo draft I grabbed him in the 19th round)

In AL only leagues I think he is somewhere between 7-10 on the 3B list. Draft him accordingly.

Also, remember to watch his Spring Training numbers and make sure he’s going to be the full time 3B in KC. If not, these numbers are no longer accurate at all.

For those of you in keeper leagues, Alex Gordon is looking to approach a 20/20 season in 2007, but projects to reach 30/30 status early in his career. Keep that in mind and also read this article comparing Gordon’s jump to the majors from AA to two big names who did the same thing, Carlos Beltran and Frank Thomas.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 2nd, 2007 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Fantasy Baseball, Prospects, Third Basemen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.