RADIO
Jace Peterson is slated to be the Braves’ second baseman again in 2016, but he doesn’t look to have much relevance outside of deep leagues that require a MI slot.
He goes on streaks, but he’ll never be a guy who hits double digit homers and it doesn’t seem like his speed has translated to the major league level. Not only was he caught stealing nearly as many times as he stole a base (12 steals, 10 caught stealing), but for a guy with plus speed, posting a sub-.300 BABIP is rather impressive.
I’m not saying he needs to or is capable of hitting (or running) like Dee Gordon, but consider that speedy guys without pop benefit greatly from ground balls and line drives. They’re not powerful enough to have their fly balls go anywhere. Gordon’s FB% was 18.7% last year, with a ground ball rate of 59.8%. Peterson had a fly ball rate of 31.8% alongside a ground ball rate of 46.3%.
If he can focus more on contact and let his legs work, he could at least become a 8/15 MI player with an average that won’t also hurt. Only consider him in deep formats.
