10 Fantasy Baseball Picks Who Could Make or Break Your 2018 Season
Joey Gallo, Texas Rangers (OF)
From 1971-1986, famed power hitter Dave Kingman slugged 442 home runs. He led the league in homers twice, with one of them being a 48-homer barrage in 1979 with the Chicago Cubs. At age 37, his final year in the Majors, Kingman hit 35 bombs and knocked in 94 runs. He was one of the most feared sluggers from that era, but unfortunately for him, he also made a ton of outs, with a career batting average of .236 and an on-base percentage of .302. He led the league in strikeouts three times and never tallied more than 62 walks in a single season.
Which brings us to Joey Gallo, whose 41 home runs were the fourth-most in baseball last season, that was accompanied by a batting average of .209. Like Kingman, Gallo strikes out a ton, evidenced by a 36.8% strikeout percentage that was second-highest among qualified hitters in 2017.
However, unlike Kingman, Gallo knows how to draw a walk -- he posted a .332 OBP off the strength of a 14.1% walk rate. The Texas Rangers can live with the batting average as long as he draws walks and continues to hit for that kind of power. But is that sustainable?
