Sleeper of the Week

Carlos Beltran heads to Houston! Octavio Dotel finds a new home in Oakland! Brad Lidge now closing for the Astros!

The fallout from baseball’s latest blockbuster trade is indeed huge, but fantasy owners shouldn’t make the mistake of focusing only on the big names. One player who may not have made the headlines but is well worth watching nevertheless is catcher John Buck.

Before being traded from Houston to Kansas City, Buck was putting together his best minor league season to date. After compiling a minor league average of .267, with a full-season high of .282 set at A-ball Michigan in 2000, Buck hit an even .300 for AAA New Orleans this year, with a solid .875 OPS. One of the primary reasons for this jump is, as is so often the case, greater patience at the plate. After posting a 3.79 K/BB ratio in 2003, he was able to cut that mark in half, with a respectable 1.86 this season.

John Buck isn’t quite as exciting a prospect as Joe Mauer or Victor Martinez, but solid catchers are always hard to come by, and at age twenty-four, there’s still quite a bit of room for improvement. Buck should see extensive playing time in Kansas City, and he’s worth keeping an eye on in keeper leagues.