If Michael Jackson played baseball: second base, rated 89

Michael Jackson as a baseball player: scouting report

Michael Jackson belongs at second base, the position built on footwork. The double play pivot is a dance step: take the feed, drag a toe across the bag, slide clear of the runner and fire to first, all in one beat. Nobody in this draft rehearsed footwork the way he did. The moonwalk he unveiled during Billie Jean on the Motown 25 television special in 1983 looked effortless because of the endless hours behind it, and that is exactly what great range up the middle looks like too.

His speed is the top mark on his card and his fielding sits right beside it, so he covers ground behind the bag, gets to balls in the hole and turns would be singles into outs. At the plate he is a table setter. The contact is excellent and his eye is close behind, which means he slaps line drives the other way, works counts and then becomes a problem on the bases. A performer who was fronting the Jackson 5 as a child learned early how to read a room, and he reads a pitcher's move to first the same way.

Power is the honest gap. He will not lift many balls over the fence, so keep him out of the middle of the order; bat him leadoff or second and let him run. His arm is only average, which matters less at second than anywhere else on the diamond. If your roster needs a shortstop more, he slides over with a modest drop, and center field works too, where his speed would chase down everything in the gaps. Pair him with a slugging corner bat and a strong armed shortstop, and take him early.

Plays like A gliding second baseman who turns two like choreography

Put Michael Jackson in your lineup

12 rolls, nine hitters and a rotation, 162 games. Can you win 117? Free, no account.