Adam Wainwright will be a bust for fantasy owners in 2015. And so we’re on the same page here, by bust, I mean that Wainwright will fail to earn his draft day cost by a meaningful margin. It does not necessarily mean that he will perform poorly and cost his owners value. Since it’s still far too early to get a sense of how fantasy owners will be valuing players next year, and specifically Wainwright, I will again reference the slow mock draft I’m currently participating in. He was selected as the 11th starting pitcher off the board. There’s serious downside at that price.

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It’s starting pitcher recap time, woohoo! So let’s kick things off by checking back with my preseason Pod’s Picks. I only included pitchers from my top 78 in the bullish section, while the bearish section lists only pitchers included in the RotoGraphs consensus (which excluded my ranking) top 78.

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Yesterday, Adam LaRoche signed with the Chicago White Sox and figures to serve as the team’s primary designated hitter with Jose Abreu entrenched at first base. Though manager Robin Ventura did say that LaRoche would play about two games a week in the field. That’s a good thing for his offensive output, as the DH penalty has been found to cost a hitter about 17 points of wOBA. So perhaps it won’t be as drastic if he still sees the field every so often. Let’s take a look how the park and team switch may affect him.

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I hate the word sleeper. The very definition of the term in fantasy circles isn’t completely clear to begin with and the players typically labeled as such are just young guys with upside. I tend to define a sleeper as anyone I believe to be undervalued, resulting in strong profit potential. But then that simply makes sleeper and undervalued synonyms. So be it. Anyhow, Ryan Zimmerman…sleeper? It’s odd to consider slapping the label on an established veteran, but considering I drafted him 89th overall in an early slow mock draft, I’m thinking that he may end up falling too far after his injury-marred season.

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Heading into the 2014 season, Kole Calhoun enjoyed some sleeper love as the prospect of hitting atop a a solid Angels lineup made him an intriguing outfield option. And despite missing over a month with an ankle injury, he still managed to finish just outside the top 30 outfielders at 33, versus our consensus rank of 42.

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Wow. We sure as heck didn’t see this one coming. If your computer crashed/you lost power/aliens abducted you for a day, and this is the first article you’re reading since, you missed one head scratching signing by the Oakland Athletics. That, of course, was Billy Butler. He figures to be the team’s every day designated hitter, and perhaps play a couple of games here and there at first base. For future Butler owners, hopefully those games at first come as starts in National League parks. Let’s take a gander at how departing Kauffman Stadium for the awesomely named O.co Coliseum may affect his performance.

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It’s hard to believe it, but Yoenis Cespedes just completed his age 28 season. Because he was a Cuban defector and came to the States later than others who have come here, he’s much older than one might expect given that he has just three full seasons under his belt. So the question is certainly valid as to whether Cespedes has peaked. His trends don’t paint a very pretty picture.

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So, he didn’t exactly launch the 30 homers I boldly predicted he would or lead the American League in the category, but Oswaldo Arcia’s power did spike as I expected. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to result in a particularly useful fantasy season, as Arcia barely earned positive value and finished just 64th among outfielders.

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I told you Corey Dickerson was going to go 25/10 this season and while he missed those milestones by one homer and two steals, you should have listened to my prognostication! Of course, I failed to do so myself, as I drafted Dickerson in a total of zero leagues. That proved to be a mistake, as Dickerson completed a breakout year that resulted in fantasy earnings ranking him 15th among outfielders and 37th overall. That’s pretty crazy for someone ranked as our 77th best outfielder in our preseason consensus.

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Because I’m apparently a fan of writing about high upside young outfielders whose seasons were marred by injuries, I have to discuss another one in Wil Myers. We all knew about Myers shooting up the prospect lists based on his minor league performances through 2012. But he became much more of a household name after being traded from the Royals to the Rays after the 2012 season in a blockbuster for James Shields. He continued to mash at Triple-A the following year with his new organization, which earned him a promotion to the Majors, debuting in mid-June.

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