Waiver Spotlight: Jake Fox

Back on May 13th, I told you not to be fooled that MiLB.com had Jake Fox listed as left fielder. I went on to tell you that Fox would only be called up to play DH in interleague play, or if Derek Lee went down. Well, sometimes I get things right, and sometimes I get things wrong. Fox has currently played six games as a three bagger, starting four of them and coming in to get at-bats in two others. He has also logged two starts in the outfield (one at each corner) and came in to play left-field two other times. Fox has only played DH in three games, and he has made six pinch-hit appearances in which he did not go on to play the field. Here is a breakdown of his stats at each spot (GS/P = Games Started/Played after not starting):

POS	GS/P	AB	R	H	RBI	K	BB	HR	E	AVG
3B	4/2	20	2	6	6	5	1	1	0	0.300
DH	3	12	1	3	3	2	1	1	0	0.250
LF	1/2	6	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	0.333
PH	6	5	1	4	1	0	(1 HBP)	0	0	0.800
RF	1	3	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0.000
Total	9/10	46	4	15	11	8	2	2	0	0.326

As you can see, things are not going as scripted for Jake. Dude is supposed to be a power hitter who will not hit for average, yet he currently sits at .326/.346/.565 with only two homers on the year. He has yet to make an error in the field. In fact, he was even part of a double play at third. This is important because going into the year, Fox (labeled the 24th prospect in the Cubs system by Baseball America) was said to be "a notch above horrific" with the leather.

For a guy who is not supposed to have any tools other than power, Fox is showing that he can get it done in other areas of the game as well. The question is not when will Fox start hitting the ball out of the park, the question is whether or not he can continue to play well defensively and hit for average. Color me optimistic about his chances of sticking it out in the Majors this year, and since Fox is only owned in 6% of Yahoo leagues and 2.4% of ESPN leagues, now is the time to pull the trigger on Jake. Add him while you can, because if the ball does start leaving the yard those ownership numbers are going to skyrocket.

See other articles by Michael Bohn at thesportsidiot.com