If you have listened to the RotoJunkie Fantasy Fix, you know that Stephen and I are two of the biggest Josh Hamilton fans around. When a player gets his own theme music on your show, he has reached legendary status. Sure, Jason still shakes his head every time he remembers the Rays exposed Hamilton to the Rule V draft to keep Tomas Perez on the roster, but that's neither here or there. Hamilton is off to a blistering, MVP-caliber start to the 2008 season. The question remains - is it sustainable? Wonderboy - what is the secret of his power?

Every time a player gets off to an insanely hot start in a season, everyone starts to look for the pitfalls and look for the worst. Pundits or players will tell you to sell high as the performance cannot possibly last. They'll point at indicators such as BABIP, or HR/FB, or bring up faults with the player such as striking out too much  or the player's inability to hit same-handed pitching. Coming into 2008, there were some knocks on Hamilton. Setting aside the very troubled past of his development years, Hamilton had two big issues in that he had injury troubles last year and was forced to play in a platoon in the very crowded Cincinnati outfield. Still, in that platoon, it became pretty obvious he was better off facing right-handed pitching.

When you consider just how long Hamilton had been away from the game, the fact he was able to do what he did last year is a testament to his natural abilities that made him the top overall draft pick back in 1998. The table below outlines his performance in 2007.

The numbers show just how bad the splits were for Hamilton last year. He was downright wretched against left-handers last year as he could not even slug .300 against them and struck out in 40% of his at bats. However, he absolutely destroyed right-handed pitching slugging .637 and making outstanding contact against them. His HR/FB ratio was a very high 24%, but playing in Cincinnati helps left-handed sluggers and nobody every questioned Hamilton's raw power. 

When he was traded to Texas, the sirens should have gone off in most fantasy players heads because Hamilton was moving to another very friendly park for left-handed hitters and he would have a chance to play DH if the aches and pains caught up with him. To date, Hamilton is hitting .335 with a .993 OPS in 197 at bats. In one hundred less at bats,  he has already surpassed his 2007 RBI total and he is only eight home runs shy of passing his 2007 home run total. Using the same table from above, let's take a look at Hamilton's 2008 overall statistics.

Do you see any more problem with lefties any longer? In nearly the same sample size, he has dramatically reduced his contact problems against lefties and is hitting the ball with much more authority against lefties. Clearly, he has done more damage against right-handed pitching but he is no longer a must-sit against lefties as he was in 2007. His xBABIP shows that he is not overperforming, and his lofty average is maintained due to his strong line-drive rate combined with his power and lower flyball rate. His career HR/FB rate is 22% so he is actually performing below his career norm in that category which means he might even have a few more home runs in him as the weather heats up in Texas this summer. So far, the best way to reduce Hamilton's damage is to have him face lefties everynight. Given that most teams are lucky to have two lefties on their entire staff, that is not going to happen too often.

Hamilton's 2008 performance is 110% legitimate and is one of the best stories of the 2008 season in a theme of comebacks with Jon Lester throwing a no-hitter after surving cancer and Doug Davis making a quick return to the mound after his battle with cancer. Hamilton should be the story at the 2008 All Star game because he offers a lot of inspiration to those who have traveled down troubled paths and do not see a way out. If you own Hamilton in your fantasy league, ignore those who tell you that Hamilton will fall off the table, because his indicators clearly support the performance. I paid $40 for him in my local league this year thanks to end-game inflation in a keeper league, but I do not regret spending one cent of that.  Remember, it is not even summer in Texas and Hamilton is putting up these numbers. One more factoid - last year, he hit 43 points higher after the all-star break