Ryan Braun, Brewers

While the first thing that comes to your mind when thinking about The Outfield is surely about what conspired because Josie went “on a vacation far away,” a little known fact is that The Outfield is not simply a totally righteous band.  It is also where you can go to address your statistical shortcomings in this coming draft.   

Now, invariably as your next draft plays out, you will find that some of the tougher decisions you make will cause a chain of events that will result in a man in Thailand will be crushed by an elephant – a butterfly effect, if you will.  Or maybe it will just mean that when you were vacillating between taking Joe Mauer and Evan Longoria, your decision ultimately left you without either a suitable catcher or third baseman.  When addressing the shortcomings that will likely arise from having to settle for A.J. Pierzynski or Casey Blake, one need look no further than the outfield to make up for the deficiencies that draft a frosted-haired contact hitter or an aging doubles hitter will cause.

As was the case last season, the following applies to the outfield…

In the outfield, the cagey owner can address his or her weaknesses because there is:

• power galor
• help for the ratio-challenged
• legitimate five-tool players in the top tier
• speed to be had for next to nothing
• RBI machines
• run-scoring fiends

There is a bevy of multi-faceted talent just waiting to be exploited by you.  As there are seemingly different types of players (sluggers, power/speed combo, burners) filling out rosters across baseball, even leagues employing a position-specific outfielder format are not going to hinder you from filling the gaps like Adrian and Rocky filled each other’s.

Read on, and I’ll give you the keys to fill in your gaps.