Yesterday afternoon, it was reported that everyone’s favorite sleeper Brandon Morrow would start the season on the disabled list due to right forearm inflammation. Those loud arrrghhs you heard at that time were the collective reactions of the fantasy owners who drafted him. Sure, it was noted that the Blue Jays would backdate his DL-stint to ensure he only misses one start, but this is quite concerning. As you may or may not know, forearm tightness, or inflammation in this case, is often a precursor to the dreaded Tommy John surgery. So Morrow owners should prepare for the worst. In the meantime, former Braves prospect Jo-Jo Reyes, who was acquired along with Yunel Escobar last season, was named to the rotation as Morrow’s replacement. Does he have any potential to generate at least some AL-Only league value?

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In fantasy baseball, there are a couple of loopholes owners can abuse and one of my favorites is SP/RP qualified pitchers. These pitchers can be used in either the starting or relief spot and, depending on your league structure, they can be quite valuable. Today, I will be looking at how to use SP/RP qualified pitchers that are going to be used as relief pitchers to start the season.

Basically, they are useful in leagues that have each of the following:

1. Allow daily transactions.
2. Have both SP and RP slots

Here is how to use them.
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The American League Rookie of the Year award may have gone to Neftali Feliz last season, and deservedly so, but the two sophomores I’m looking most forward to following this season are Wade Davis and Brian Matusz.

Each pitcher resides in the middle of our AL starting pitching rankings, and each also have the unfortunate assignment of playing in the American League East this season. Neither the Rays nor the Orioles will depend on the performances of these starters to succeed – the Rays are too good and the Orioles have too many other problems – but both will get ample opportunity to add on to their successful rookie campaigns.

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The regular season has yet to begin, but let’s take a look at two players that are owned in less than 50% of Yahoo! leagues…

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I have always been tempted to draft as cheap a pitching staff as possible, though I have never used this strategy before in a mock draft or a real one. In an auction, this strategy is simply called the $9 pitching staff. In a snake draft, you would draft all your hitters in rounds 1-14 and then fill out your pitching staff over the remaining 9 rounds. Unfortunately, the $9 pitching staff auction strategy will put you at a severe disadvantage versus your competitors who are all likely spending at least $55 more than you on pitching. However, a straight draft puts teams on a much more even playing field, so although your rotation would likely be worse than the rest of your leaguemates’, the difference would not be as large as it would be in an auction league. So let us use actual average draft position data from CBS Sports leagues to construct a cheap pitching staff.

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Remember him? If not, it may be because he has been on the DL more days than he has been off it (note: this may or may not be true) since his Major League Debut in 2005. In fact, if you thought Rich Harden was injury prone, Brandon McCarthy actually has him beat. According to the Baseball Injury Tool, McCarthy has dealt with injury issues on 14 different occasions since 2006, while Harden only suffered through 13 during that same time span. So now that we have established just how much McCarthy’s career has been ruined by injuries so far, let me discuss why he makes for a great gamble for your lonely dollar in an AL-Only auction.

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After finishing my last post on the potential return to the majors for Brandon Webb, I was inspired to continue down the path of the walking wounded and talk about another AL starting pitcher I  met along the way.  He’s also coming back from major surgery, is on schedule to make his team’s Opening Day roster and a first week start, and for me, remains a high risk candidate in which to invest.  So when it comes to draft day, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky?  Well, do ya, punk? Read the rest of this entry »

Mike rolled out our American League Starting Pitcher Rankings on Thursday and although the ensuing debate seemed far more concerned about everyone’s favorite band, there were some names towards the bottom of the barrel worth keeping an eye on for draft day (or the wire in the case of already-drafted leagues, of course). One in particular that I’ve been tracking is Marc Rzepczynski.

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Everyone preaches patience when it comes to drafting pitchers, especially after The Year Of The Pitcher. Well, if you’re in an AL-only league, I submit that you throw that strategy out the window. Owners whose player pools are confined solely to the Junior Circuit realize just how shallow starting pitching is. Aside from having to face better teams as well as designated hitters, both of which negatively impact fantasy categories (i.e. AL: 4.14 ERA, 6.8 K/9 vs. NL: 4.02 ERA; 7.4 K/9), there’s also the simple fact that the AL has two fewer teams, and thus at least 10 fewer starters. Bottom line: Legitimate starters are all the more valuable, and the well runs dry pretty quickly.

Keep that in mind as we look at three arms you’ll have to consider drafting in the same range.

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Reading the daily tea leaves surrounding the possible move of Neftali Feliz from closer to starter can get a little confusing. First, he’s their closer until something changes and he wants to be the closer. Now, he wants to be a starter and his GM thinks he would be more valuable in that role. Last, a national writer feels it would be an upset if he starts. What a way to mess up rankings.

The good news for those that drafted Feliz is that he’ll probably be valuable in fantasy baseball either way. He’s so excellent that he can survive the average 0.7 MPH drop that occurs during the switch according to Jeremy Greenhouse’s work. If his 96 MPH gas turns into 95 MPH gas, it’s still gas. According to Tom Tango’s work, he’ll also lose about 17% of his K/PA and his BABIP and HR/FB will increase by about 17%.

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