Have the days of drafting Sandoval late for catcher ended?

[CubsFan7724]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/preview09 ... id=4027794

ESPN just ran an article that compares him to both Albert Pujols and Vlad Guerrero....

[RynoDyno]

"I just think he's a natural born hitter," McCovey said. "I went out on a limb last year and said I think he's going to be another Albert Pujols. I know it's high praise, but that's kind of who he reminded me of when he first came up."

really Willie, albert pujols??! reeeeeally?? somebody's been drinking too much of carlos santana's DVX champagne.

[Super Manny]

Went in the 11th round (129th overall) in my 12 team roto money league over the weekend...

[silverZ]

He went from underrated to overrated so fast. Went in the 9th round of my redraft 12 team league.

[Havok1517]

Temper expectations but he has value at catcher I'm just not sure he has the sort of power. He's 5'11 275 lbs!!! Pujols and Vlad are/were physical studs unlike Sandoval. The Terry Pendelton comparison seems more likely but I tend to think he produces similarly to Dimitri Young when he was good. Still, he's done at catcher with Molina there and Posey quickly on the way. I also tend to think Sandoval will move over to 1B as Gillaspie and potentially Guzman push him due to him lacking good defense (sorry ishikawa).

[CubsFan7724]

Yeah last week I managed to combo Wieters and him.

Now Sandoval regularly goes ahead of Wieters. He is very valuable as a catcher that starts every day, however.

[Neato Torpedo]

Temper expectations but he has value at catcher I'm just not sure he has the sort of power. He's 5'11 275 lbs!!! Pujols and Vlad are/were physical studs unlike Sandoval. The Terry Pendelton comparison seems more likely but I tend to think he produces similarly to Dimitri Young when he was good. Still, he's done at catcher with Molina there and Posey quickly on the way. I also tend to think Sandoval will move over to 1B as Gillaspie and potentially Guzman push him due to him lacking good defense (sorry ishikawa).

5'11 245 by most sources (except his B-R minors page which has him at 5'11 180 ), but yeah, that's still pretty huge. And besides, weight and power are positively correlated, and just looking at him you can tell that there's plenty of muscle in that 245 pounds. 23 HR in 593 AB between 3 levels in '08 is not bad.

At his peak I can see him hitting .310 with 25-30 HR, and settling in around Loney-type production, but that probably won't come from the C position.

[AussieDodger]

Did they ever start?

[Kingctb27]

I've got him pretty much every team that matters to me. His BA is going to carry teams.

[Ender]

He went in the 9th round of our 14 team league over a week ago. If you are in a league where Sandoval is eligible for C and he isn't going pretty early you should probably find a tougher league~.