The Doubles Machine

Orioles’ third baseman Manny Macho continues to hit doubles at a record pace. Currently the 20 year old has 33 doubles in his first 72 games. The record is 67 set by Earl Webb back in 1931. He has a solid chance to set history. Machado has hit in the 2 hole all year and put up a .324 average to go along with 5HR and 37 RBI and 5 SB. His OPS is a whopping .845. He recently had a 14 game hitting streak snapped. But can right back with 2 knocks in his next game. A look at this doubles chart shows balls hit from foul line to foul line. This kid just plasters the ball to every part of the park including some ground rule doubles. Many think that when he hits 200lbs 20-30% of those doubles will be HRs. Scary!

I only own Machado in 1 league, it was an auction league where I put up Machado for a buck and no one countered. At the time I thought I had a below average 3B going into the season. How wrong I was, I am now winning this league thanks in part to Machado. At 20, Machado is Trout/Harperesque player without the media hype. I went and looked up A-Rods 20 year old season for comparisons in doubles. A-Rod had one of his best hitting seasons ever at age 20 so maybe not a fair comparison but here are his numbers at age 20 and 21. Remember though A-Rod was hitting in the 3 hole at that time too. 54 Doubles, 36 HR, 123 RBI, and 15 SB while hitting .358. At 21 A-Rods numbers look much more the same as Machado. 40 Doubles 23 HR, 84 RBI, 29 SB while hitting .300.

Machado may not get the Trout-Harper hype but he would be my main target in any Dynasty/Keeper League. Remember too that the day will come when he qualifies at SS. When that happens he could be a number 1 overall fantasy pick just like A-Rod was for nearly a decade.

If Machado can push his doubles count to north of 40 by the All-Star game it will be the talk of the All-Star break. So if you want to make a move for Machado try to do it now because the hype will increase 10 fold over the next 4 weeks and his remaining 23 games until the break.