TheBaseballStars

TheBaseballStarsNote: We will look at the players that have been disappointments on our respective teams. Obviously Newspaperman has no disappointments because he is the Michael Jordan of baseball. Hitting fifth (Newspaperman as the cleanup hitter?) is mwa, The Jon lowlighting one of the most overrated players heading into the season … Placido Polanco. Enjoy.

The term Fakin’ the funk was overused during it’s heyday between 1992-1996. The Jon has only heard the phrase used right on two occasions before now. The first time was by this girl named Carol who let’s just say got around and she once said she had to fake the funk with this one high school wrestler.

Sure she was a garden utensil, but she was still cool.

The second of course was by the group The Main Source with the Large Professor. It was off the soundtrack of White Men Can’t Jump hence the appearances of Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson. At least it wasn’t Passenger 57 …

Gaaaawd, what an awful movie. But not as bad as Placido Polanco has been. So much so that he is now the third instance of using the term Fakin’ the Funk correctly. Let’s see why …

Now you gotta realize that Polanco is a good fantasy player. He can easily notch 200 hits and carry a plus-.300 average while being an anchor at a shallow second base position.

The Jon has utilized Polanco for the past three seasons as a stop-gap player when the young rookie prospect fell through or when Jorge Cantu of three seasons past and Robinson Cano have gone through slumps.

Polanco was a player that could always be had on the wire, and the smart fantasy player would usually pick him up three weeks into the season.

After last season, that all changed for two reasons:

1. The most obvious was Polanco’s 2007 campaign. You know, 200 hits, a .341 average with 105 runs scored.
2. With the emergence of Chase Utley, Brandon Phillips, BJ. Upton and Robinson Cano, second base was now an important position in fantasy baseball. Gone were the days of second base being a bunch of punch n’ judy hitters. Fantasy baseball managers could now build their teams around a position which was once one of the weakest in fantasy baseball.

Polanco was now a player that had to be drafted in the 10th through 12th rounds once the second-tier second baseman started coming off the board.

The Jon has Polanco in both of his leagues. After the first week he is now entrenched on The Jon’s bench.

He has 8 hits in three weeks of play with a nice .148 average. Polanco will turn it around, but it is the circumstances surrounding his draft selection that is frustrating.

The Jon also has Yunel Escobar who has been solid and came at a much cheaper price in the later rounds of most baseball drafts.

While Polanco was being picked high, that same very pick could have been used to grab a second-tier starter or a top-notch closer. But instead The Jon is stuck with Polanco in limbo. He is not good enough to start and he has too much name recognition to drop.

And once he gets dropped, that’s is when he will turn it around.

Placido Polanco … more like Enrico Pallazzo tied up and gagged.

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