Scott Podsednik, OF, Chicago White Sox

April 25, 2007 @ 16:00:00

By Adam Barricklow
Edited by Ryan Dodson

For a guy that was not expected to start the season, Chicago White Sox outfielder Scott Podsednik has been a pleasant early season surprise to fantasy owners and to White Sox fans. An offseason hernia surgery, Podsednik's second in consecutive years, had many expecting his name to be missing from the Opening Day lineup. However, after a strong spring training Podsednik won the opening day role, moving Darin Erstad to center and relegating Brian N. Anderson to the bench. Podsednik's strong start will be put on hold for the time being as he has been placed on the 15-day DL retroactive to April 16 due to a right adductor muscle (groin) pull.

Podsednik's early season form (.303, three stolen bases and six runs) has reminded some of his 2005 All-Star season, where he finished with a .290 batting average to go along with 59 stolen bases and 80 runs. Podsednik has shown a tendency to be a streaky hitter in the past. In 2006 he went hitless in his first 26 at-bats. He followed that by hitting .318 in May, dropped to .245 in June, improved to .287 in July and fell to .217 in August. Injuries are always tough on fantasy teams, but a streaky player going down in the middle of a hot streak only adds to that frustration. Even more frustrating has to be that he went down not in the line of duty, but rather doing agility drills during one of the team's days off. Over the last four years Podsednik has seen his average rise and fall, but he has consistently been able to steal bases. Over the last four years he has yet to record fewer than 40 stolen bases in a season. However, his stolen bases total has dropped each season. A lingering injury, especially one so early in the season, could see an end to Podsednik's stolen bases streak.

Table - Chicago White Sox OF Scott Podsednik statistics 2004-07

Year	BA	SB	R
2004	.244	70	85
2005	.290	59	80
2006	.261	40	86
2007	.303	3	6

The White Sox will use outfielders Rob Mackowiak and Pablo Ozuna to replace Podsednik. However, neither player is hitting better than .250 and combined they have a total of one stolen base. With Mackowiak and Ozuna struggling offensively fantasy owners will have to look elsewhere to try and replace Podsednik's numbers. Two possible replacements are Texas Rangers outfielder Kenny Lofton and Chicago Cubs utilityman Ryan Theriot.

Table: Texas Rangers OF Kenny Lofton

BA	SB	R
.269	6	9

Table: Chicago Cubs 2B Ryan Theriot

BA	SB	R
.339	5	8

The good news for fantasy owners is that Podsednik's injury is not considered a major one. That does not mean fantasy owners should expect him to pick up right where he left off. With his growing injury history and increasing age, it is important for fantasy owners to have depth should Podsednik struggle coming back from injury. Podsednik's streaky play from last season alone warrants the need for added depth. There were only 11 players last season that had at least 40 stolen bases, making players capable of hitting for average and consistently steal bases a difficult commodity to come by. If you have the roster space, hold on to him for now and see how he bounces back from the injury. In the meantime and as a backup plan keep an eye on the waiver wire for players such as Lofton and Theriot.

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Adam Barricklow

Adam Barricklow is based out of Central Ohio and has been a KFFL Contributor since 2003. Adam has been playing Fantasy Football since 1996 and has been addicted since day one. Adam plays in various leagues, running one of them and uses his experience and knowledge to create reports that are able to help the fantasy player look at every perspective.

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