The first thing you should do after reading this sentence is head over to eBay and see what his autographed cards are going for. When you think of second basemen, you don’t normally think about Kinsler. In fact, he may not even be on your top 5 list of second basemen. But he should be, currently on Yahoo he is ranked 2nd. His season stats are 0.321/13/50/20, oh and by the way it’s just the All Star break.
He was never really a hot prospect, he was supposed to be a solid contact hitter with some speed and very good defensively. What the last few season have shown us is his ability to learn. He broke into the league at just 24 years old in 2006 and went 0.286/14/55/11. His ability really just came out of nowhere, he was actually a 17th round pick. He showed no power his first season in A ball (2002), but he definitely could hit for average so they moved him up to AA. Well in 2004 he made the leap to prolific hitter as he took AA and AAA pitching for 0.345/20/99/23. In 2005 he played a full year in AAA and went 0.274/23/94/19. He is definitely capable of a 0.300/20/100/20 season, the question is can those power and steal numbers jump to 30/30 and beyond?
Probably not beyond but 30/30 is a possibility. His strongest attribute is his ability to steal bases without being caught. This year he is 20 for 21, last year he was 23 for 25. He just doesn;t get caught. The fact that he just entered his prime years should be a scary thought for AL West pitchers. Here is a guy with 25 homer potential who can steal at will on you. Best of all, for what ever reason, his autographed cards are still cheap. A quick look at eBay and you can see that they are running between $2 and $5. Which is impressive given his upside. Chase Utley was in this situation 2 years ago. He had back to back good seasons, then he just took off offensively.
I think you might be looking at the same thing, but throw in some speed and an uncanny ability to sneak past catcher’s throws. This year I expect him to be in the 0.295/25/90/32 region. But he is such a good learner when it comes to evaluate pitching that you can expect an even better year next year. I have already been able to purchase two of his autographed cards for under $2. It’s very possible you just have to be patient and use an aution sniping service like Gixen.
Here are a few of his signed cards:
Like I said, he is an under the radar kind of guy right now, but he won’t be for long, so get him while you can. Not worth more than $5 right now, but if you can get some limited edition auotgraphs for $4 or less, I would do it.
Great post. Kinsler is starring on one of my fantasy teams this year and I voted for him for the All Star game. He is below the radar now but won’t be for long.
I like Kinsler alot but he really frustrates me with his glove. I thought he had finally turned the corner after the break last year but it has been worse this year. Hopefully he will experience another defensive improvement after this years break.
Ian kinsler should know that his greatness in baseball comes from his grandfather Jack Kinsler and his dad Howie. Both were great softball players in the 60′s. Howie do you remember Bobby Ernest?
bucky, send your e-mail address to me at (bucky email me for address).