Craig Monroe

Monroe ran hot-and-cold all of last season. If you owned him at the right times you were awarded with good production. If you owned him the whole season you had to go through the long slumps. Monroe will always be prone to these slumps because he lacks plate patience. He does have good power and can drive the ball out of the park when he connects, but as his 126 strikeouts last season attest, he's up there hacking. Expect to trade some average for power with Monroe.

With a career-high in at-bats last year, Monroe failed to improve his power numbers and his batting average dipped to a level more commensurate with his plate discipline. He'll enter the year as Detroit's starting leftfielder.

Monroe demonstrated last season that his 2003 performance wasn't a fluke, improving his batting average by more than .050 and increasing his run and RBI production. Though he continued to lack patience at the plate, he showed that he could match his solid power with a respectable average. Monroe enters 2005 as Detroit's starting left fielder, but he likely won't play in more than 130 games since Rondell White and Bobby Higginson will get spot starts from time to time.

Monroe's average was mediocre and his K/BB ratio was awful (89/27), but somehow he managed to hit 23 home runs and 18 doubles in 425 at-bats. Don't expect him to be able to match those power numbers this year, or even the plate appearances.

Monroe picked a nice time to put it together at Triple-A (.321, 10 homers in 358 at-bats), because at age 26, his window is closing fast. He's got a chance to stick as a reserve outfielder, but he'll need lots of injuries and breaks to play regularly.