The long awaited arrival of George Springer has finally arrived early into the 2014 season.  Springer has been one of the top prospects in baseball for the last couple of years and has finally received his chance this year and is making the most of it.  I’m buying what Springer is selling this year as he has always had the tools to be a big piece in a teams lineup.

Springer has essentially produced at numbers equivalent to that of when he was in the minors.  The two areas where he seen a drop in his short career are in batting average and steals.  The more surprising of the two is the lack of steals.  In the minors Springer produced a 30 steal season and a 40 steal season.  Someone with that kind of speed doesn’t just magically lose it by being called up.  Once he becomes more confident and adjusted to major league pickoff moves and catchers, we should begin to see steals with more regularity.  

The one area that is going to be harder for Springer to correct is his batting average.  In the minors he was a career .302 hitter but through 42 games Springer is only batting .259.  The main culprit for the large drop in batting average is the increase in strikeout percentage.  Springer was fortunate to bat over .300 in the minors with a strikeout percentage of 31 percent.  In the majors Springer has gotten worse against the better major league pitching.  Springer is striking out an astonishing 35 percent of the time.  When you fail to put the ball in play a third of the time you can’t expect to be a batter with a good average.  If he ever manages to lower that strikeout percentage Springer can certainly be a .285 career with his set of skills.

Even though Springer is not stealing bases or batting for a good average he has showed his tremendous power potential.  In only 162 at bats Springer has ten homers and 29 RBI.  Despite not stealing Springer speed is showing in the runs scored column with the 24 runs scored that he has.  Springer is on pace to drive hit 40 homeruns which is an astonishing number for any player let a lone a rookie that was called up nearly a month into the season.  

Springer has been a huge spark for the Astros since getting called up.  Fantasy owners should be looking to buy on George Springer especially in dynasty leagues, as he going to be a huge power source and potentially speed source for years to come.