After the complete teardown that happened in Miami this winter, fantasy players might be forgiven for looking at the club as merely “Giancarlo Stanton and 24 guys who aren’t Giancarlo Stanton.” It’s not quite going to be Houston-level bad in South Florida as many expect, but it might be a tough team to watch — if, of course, anyone even shows up at the park to do so. Read the rest of this entry »

The Rays had one of the best bullpen’s in baseball last year, posting the lowest ERA (2.88) and highest K/9 (9.33) in the American League. Joe Maddon’s group wasn’t called on much thanks to the amount of innings the rotation was able to bear. With the loss of workhorse James Shields the ‘pen will likely be tasked with more work in 2013. Luckily for the Rays nearly all of the key components return this season.

Closer:
Fernando Rodney

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Like El Guapo with his many piñatas, the Nationals certainly do not want for starting pitching. Given how good the top of their rotation looks to be, it would be tempting to call them top-heavy, but that does a serious disservice to Jordan Zimmermann and Ross Detwiler, who would be much higher ranked in a rotation that didn’t boast arguably the best pair in baseball with Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez. Whether this rotation challenges the Reds and others for the title of best in baseball may depend on Dan Haren’s ability to recover from a disastrous 2012 season. Read the rest of this entry »

In 2012, the Toronto Blue Jays’ bullpen proved two things: the closer job is, as always, subject to change; and it’s not especially difficult to protect a three-run lead for three outs.

When the Jays dealt prospect Nestor Molina to the Chicago White Sox for Sergio Santos in the offseason, the closer job looked to belong to the former Blue Jays’ minor league shortstop. Five innings and two blown saves later and Santos was done for the year due to shoulder surgery. Enter Casey Janssen, a perfectly adequate but unsensational reliever to that point in his career (he was coming off a 2.26 ERA/2.45 FIP season in 2011 but had been merely league average across four seasons prior to that).

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Times are changing for the Yankees bullpen, which will officially be without Mariano Rivera starting next season. The future Hall of Famer confirmed the 2013 season will be his last as a player over the weekend, but the club and its fans got a sneak preview of what life without Mo will be like last summer. Rivera threw only 8.1 innings before blowing his knee in a freak (fly ball!) shagging injury in early-May. Rafael Soriano stepped in and saved 42 games, but was allowed to leave as a free agent this winter.

For now, the team’s bullpen will resemble their bullpens of the last three or four years. There is a new face or two and a player coming back from injury, but the core is unchanged. That’s generally good news for fantasy owners.

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The AL East is up for grabs this year, and the Tampa Bay Rays are poised to compete once again. This year, the team has sacrificed James Shields and Wade Davis in hopes of extending their window to compete, but have also revamped most of their infield. There’s some value in the 2013 Rays infield, so long as a fantasy owner keeps expectations low … or gets Evan Longoria.

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The Indians’ outfield underperformed last season, posting a combined .315 wOBA and only hitting 44 home runs. Such a lack of production led to a major overhaul. Shin-Soo Choo was shipped to in-state foe Cincinnati in a three-team trade that brought Drew Stubbs (amongst others) to Cleveland, the club chose to part ways with Johnny Damon and Shelley Duncan, and the Indians also dipped into the free agent market by signing Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher to multi-year deals.

The flurry of transactions should result in an improved offense for the Indians for fantasy owners.

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It’s so tempting when discussing the Reds rotation to gloss over the front end in favor of Aroldis Chapman. He’s definitely the dominant storyline with this team, but whether he becomes a dominant starter is far less clear. Thankfully for the Reds, they aren’t counting on him to lead the rotation, just to fall in behind Johnny Cueto and Mat Latos, who are underrated as a top-of-the-rotation pair. There are a few pairs I like better – Clayton Kershaw/ Zack Greinke and Stephen Strasburg/Gio Gonzalez chiefly among them – but the Reds are hardly wanting for quality with those two.

Projected Rotation

Johnny Cueto
Mat Latos
Aroldis Chapman
Homer Bailey
Bronson Arroyo

Waiting in the Wings

Mike Leake
Tony Cingrani
Armando Galarraga Read the rest of this entry »

If you wanted to write an article that characterized the Mets rotation as somewhere between poor and bad, it wouldn’t be too hard to do. You could cite the loss of their Cy Young winner and the only guy on the team who ranked top 50 in pitcher WAR last year, R.A. Dickey. And you could talk about the fact that they used 13 starting pitchers last year. But that would be a mischaracterization. Sure, the loss of Dickey hurts, but this is a staff with a lot of potential. Read the rest of this entry »

The Washington Nationals received a much larger contribution from uber-prospect Bryce Harper than expected last season. That was highly beneficial, not only because Harper’s performance was exceptional, but also because both Jayson Werth and Michael Morse missed significant chunks of the year with injuries. As a result, Harper has seen his draft stock rise dramatically, while Werth is being selected as mostly an afterthought. Add Denard Span to an already strong lineup, and there’s a good chance all three Nationals outfielders will have value in most fantasy leagues.

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