A’s Preview: Mark Ellis

The 2010 A’s infield will look a little different than past years. That’s partly because A’s GM, Billy Beane is trying to retool and rebuild the infield for future seasons.

So excuse me when I say that Mark Ellis is probably the only infielder I know a great deal about (aside from 1B Daric Barton) that will make up Oakland’s starting infield in 2010.

In 2009, Mark Ellis batted .263/.305/.403 en route to a 10-homer, 61 RBI season. Those are pretty solid numbers considering he played in only 105 games. In the last three seasons with the A’s, Ellis’ average line is .253/.321/.406. His homerun total over the past three seasons is 41. So offensively, Ellis is pretty solid across the board and should be a decent pickup in most fantasy baseball leagues.

Ellis’ biggest attribute is his defensive prowess. Ellis is arguably one of the best–if not the best fielding 2B in the league today. Ellis committed only 5 errors in 105 games at second last year (.990 FPCT). His best defensive season, however, came in 2006, when he committed only 2 errors in an impressive 123 games (.997 FPCT). But despite his impressive defense, Ellis is still without a Gold Glove.

In 2010, Mark Ellis should be a productive player. He has hit 10 or more homers in each of the past five seasons, which is a streak he hopes to extend, I’m sure. As always, defensively he should be gold for Oakland. And with Oakland shifting its focus on defense, Ellis becomes all the more important.

You can take a look at Mark Ellis’ player profile here: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?playerId=5086