Fantasy Baseball: Is Gordon Beckham The Next Chase Utley?

I was catching up on some fantasy articles over on ESPN, and saw that Jason Grey has a new article posted. The title of the article is "Gordon Beckham="next big thing". Here is an excerpt that fantasy owners need to focus on:

So what can fantasy owners expect, now and in the future? Most 2010 projections I've come across have Beckham in the .270-.280 range in batting average, with 16-20 homers, and those numbers might be conservative. While forecasters want to acknowledge that Beckham will show some growth, they really don't want to go out on a limb. But we have Beckham hitting .288 with 25 homers and slugging close to .500. That's a more aggressive yet still reasonable projection for him, and there's also the chance that even that sells him short, given his tools and skills.

Those numbers are Chase Utley-esque, and would put Beckham in the first four or five rounds of fantasy drafts THIS year. That is, if you buy that projection for Beckham. In 378 at bats in 2009, Beckham went 14-63-58-7-.270-.347-.460. He had a 65/41 K/BB ratio, and an ISO of .190. He hit a flyball in 43% of his at bats andhis HR/FB% was 10%.

Bill James agrees with Grey, as he projects Beckham to go 21-96-93-10-.288-.360-.477 in 2010. As a second baseman, that would rank him in the top 5 at the position with the likes of Utley, Brandon Phillips, Ben Zobrist, Ian Kinsler and Robinson Cano.

Here's more from Grey:

The bottom line is we're talking about a player who has a good chance of ranking among the top 10 at both third base and second base at the end of the season, and who could be drafted in the top 50 overall in future seasons.

 Baseball HQ's Ron Shandler has Beckham going 20-79-9-.276 in 2010. Grey and James are a little more aggressive with their projections, and I see nothing wrong with that. Fantasy owners should not be afraid of reaching for Beckham a few rounds early if you can put him at 2B, as he will be 2B eligible a few weeks into the season.