RADIO
DJ LeMahieu really took a step forward in 2015, as he started stealing enough and upped his average to a point where he brought some juice to the table for fantasy owners. In past years he has been an empty decent batting average, but never doing enough to warrant consideration outside of deep league MI slots.
In 2015 he logged 620 plate appearances, hitting .301 while scoring 85 runs, knocking in 61 runs, and swiping 23 bags. He has drastically cut down the rate at which chases pitches outside of the zone, going from 38.2% in 2013 to 31.7% in 2014, to 2015’s figure of 25.2%. This has led to an uptick in walks as well. Another signal that his approach changed was a drop in the rate that he pulled the ball in 2015, dropping from 2014’s 28.1% to 21.2%.
Spraying the ball to all fields worked for him. Look that increased average to be sustainable, and with LeMahieu embracing the speed, he should continue to perform well in 2016. The fear of him being just a blip on the radar doesn't appear to have much weight to it. He could be a solid 2B1 in leagues that you can score for cheap on draft day.
