Prior to the start of the 2012 season when we did our 10 Bold Predictions, I had high hopes for Trevor Cahill. He had taken a step backwards in his third full season with Oakland, but had several things working in his favor that had me thinking there were bigger and better things on the horizon for him. After all, he was just 24 years old, a ground-ball pitcher whose strikeout rate had increased each season, and now he was headed to the National League to pitch in a notoriously weak-hitting division filled with pitcher-friendly ballparks. Maybe his new home was hitter-friendly, but there seemed to be enough working in his favor that would counter that. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned and left me wondering if there was any more upside to Cahill or if we had reached the ceiling and the 48th spot in which he inhabits on Zach Sanders’ Starting Pitcher End of Season Rankings was as high as he’d go. Read the rest of this entry »

Plenty of pitchers go through an early season manic phase before crashing back to earth in the second half, but few who pitched as well as Lance Lynn did after being thrust into the rotation find their jobs as unsecure the next season as he does going into 2013.

Lynn was given his shot at starting late in camp last year, less than a month before his regular season debut, and only because it appeared as though Chris Carpenter wouldn’t be healthy in time to break camp with the team. Lynn adapted to the role well and went 8-1 in his first 10 starts with a 2.54 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP. His next 10 starts were less encouraging as he went 5-3 with a 4.40 ERA and a 1.43 WHIP.Still, even after he made the start that finally pushed him out of the rotation on August 24, Lynn’s overall line wasn’t horrific by any stretch of the imagination. A 13-5 record with a 3.93 ERA, a 1.34 WHIP, and 9.0 K/9 is certainly workable, even if he was in the midst of something of a swoon at the time. Read the rest of this entry »

Yu Darvish’s successful first year in the U.S. was full of some ups and downs. His fantasy owners should have been happy with his final results of 16 Wins, a sub-4 ERA, especially in Texas, and 221 strikeouts. Some signs point to Davish improving during the 2012 season and those changes may follow him into the 2013 season.

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The short version of the old book on James Shields that he was a flyball and strikeout guy with a home run problem. That version of James Shields might care about leaving a home park that suppresses home runs. Except that version of James Shields doesn’t exist any more and his new home park is even friendlier.

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The emergence of R.A. Dickey as an ace-level pitcher made for one of the best stories in baseball. The 37-year-old knuckleballer had started to show promising signs in 2010, but everything finally came together last year. Six seasons after he started tinkering with the pitch, Dickey seemed to finally master the knuckleball. He was rewarded with the Cy Young award, and finished first overall in Zach Sanders’ pitcher rankings. While Dickey’s 2012 performance deserves to be celebrated, he actually comes with some risk.

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“It” being the long awaited breakout. After coming up through the Reds system as one of the top pitching prospects in the game, Homer Bailey was supposed to eventually lead the team’s rotation. But up until 2011, he had never posted an ERA below 4.43 and hadn’t pitched more than 132.0 innings. Through parts of five seasons, Bailey had been a disappointment and many were ready to give up on him ever becoming what had once been expected. Then 2012 happened and Bailey finally had that true breakout year we all thought he was capable of.

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The 2012 fantasy baseball season has come to a close, so it is time to look back at the season past and determine which players were the most valuable at each position. This week focuses on starting pitchers.

The players were ranked based on their 2012 production, using the evaluation system explained and updated on this site some time ago. To keep things manageable and avoid skewing the numbers, players were only considered if they amassed 140 innings pitched over the course of the year. The replacement level was also adjusted to account for players eligible at multiple positions. The valuations are built for $260 budgets and traditional 5×5 roto fantasy leagues.

These rankings are meant to reflect a player’s value should he have occupied this spot in your lineup for the entire year. So, a player who missed time due to injury but put up great numbers during his time on the field would be worth less.

With all this in mind, here are your rankings. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, the Phillies announced that they simply couldn’t go any longer without Juan Pierre and so they decided to acquire his clone, Ben Revere. It cost them Vance Worley, which opens up a rotation spot for a new face. We still have a long ways to go in the off-season, so the team could very well sign another starter to replace Worley. But for this piece, let’s assume they replace him internally and check out their options.

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How many times have you had to rely on Joe Blanton? You don’t have to be ashamed, just admit it, we’ve all been there. It’s the last day of your fantasy matchup, and you’re looking for the one spot-starter who could give you a slim advantage. No matter what stat you try and sort by, Blanton always seems to top the list. Desperate, you take the chance and hope it doesn’t come back to bite you. In his career, Blanton has been the perfect AAAA player in fantasy leagues. Good enough to either be the last man on your roster, or the top choice on the waiver wire. Does joining the Angels change his value?

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The Washington Nationals found a new one-year pitcher to replace Edwin Jackson. This time, it’s Dan Haren coming to the capital for $13 million for the 2013 season. The projections up on this site are upbeat about his chances at a bounce-back, but those projections aren’t privy to the doctor’s reports. Neither are we, really, but we do know that there are problems with Dan Haren’s body.

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