Yankee fans may remember Wilson Betemit, who played first base part time for the team in 2008. Since then, he has bounced around the AL Central, playing for the Royals, White Sox and Tigers, and this season is projected to be the starting DH for the Baltimore Orioles. To be honest, the O's might be better off moving him to third and making Mark Reynolds the DH, given Reynolds's noted defensive struggles, although Betemit isn't much better. Anyways, I wanted to look at Betemit today because I feel that he truly is underrated as a platoon player. Read on to see the proof.
Betemit is definitely not capable of being a full-time starter, mostly because of his extreme lefty/righty splits. Against lefties, he has hit just .246 with 13 homers and 50 RBIs for his career, while against righties those numbers are .277 with 50 and 193, albeit in about three times as many at bats. However, in a limited role over the last two seasons, Betemit has been one of the best hitting third basemen in the game. Over that span, he has hit .290, with an OBP of .359 and a .479 SLG. That's good enough for a 128 OPS+. Among all players in the MLB over the last 2 years with at least 650 plate appearances, Betemit is among a group of just 20 to put up a .285 / .355 / .475 triple slash. Even more impressive, he ranks 4th among third basemen in OPS+ and 9th in WAR runs batting over that span. To use more traditional statistics, Betemit has averaged 19 HR, 80 RBI, and 38 2B per/162 in two partial seasons of work. The bottom line is, if you're looking for a cheap bat for the bench of your fantasy team who'll put up solid numbers, Betemit might be the guy for you.
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