With Kevin Youkilis officially out of the picture now with the Chicago White Sox, the future looks bright for the emerging Will Middlebrooks.
Analysis: Will Middlebrooks projects as a power bat for quite some time. He hit 27 HR in the Red Sox organization last year in just 129 games as a twenty-two year old. He also stole twelve bags last year so he can contribute in all five roto categories. Thus far this year Middlebrooks is hitting .326, slugging .583 with nine bombs and 34 RBI in just 41 games. He will not sustain this pace the rest of the year but in the future he will be an elite RBI machine.
He finds himself in a great situation, he has plenty of protection in a deep Boston batting order. There also isn’t too much pressure on the rookie yet and he will benefit from that. He does need to walk a bit more and hit sliders better but he is the real deal. Middlebrooks still hasn’t found a steady spot in the Red Sox order but RBI opportunities abound in that lineup, so no worries. Middlebrooks is available in over forty percent of fantasy leagues, get him while you can.