Preseason DL Slot Options
Almost all fantasy leagues have a few spots to place players that are on the DL. Fantasy owners should look at filling these available roster spots with players currently on the DL. I will look at a few players that can be used in these slots.
Victor Martinez – C, DH (1.4% owned in ESPN, 13% in Yahoo) – Victor will not be playing in 2012, so if an owner is in a 1-year league, ignore him. In a keeper league, he has some definate value. Good hitting qualified catchers are hard to find. While an owner may not be able to stash him for a season, why not try hold onto him until the end of the season. If there is a point when he must be dropped to the waiver wire, try to trade him off. Attempt to turn the release into a bidding war. State that owner A, the owner with the best waiver wire ranking and an open DL slot, will get him up unless another owner offers up a trade.
Salvador Perez – C (6.4% ESPN, 11% Yahoo) – Sal is expected to miss 12 to 14 weeks. His return should be in late July at the earliest. All catchers wear down and are generally bad offensively. Sal will be a decent C option when he returns in all but the shallowest of leagues.
Brett Anderson – P (0.4% ESPN, 4% Yahoo) – Brett has been a decent fantasy option when healthy. The problem is that he is rarely healthy. He will not be the same pitcher that he was when he came up in 2009. Since 2009, he has lost 1.5 MPH to his fastball and his strikeout and gone down (7.7 K/9 in 2009 to 6.6 K/9 in 2011). This last injury will degrade his talent even more. Brett looks to return in August when many pitchers may be getting shutdown. He could step in for some innings late in the season.
Rubby de la Rosa – P (0% ESPN, 1% Yahoo) – I like Rubby potential fantasy value more than Brett Anderson. He threw hard (96 MPH) and averaged 8.9 K/9 in 13 games last season. The main problem holding him down in 2011 was his 4.6 BB/9. He could be a great pitcher if he could get the walks under control. He looks to be ready to return from TJS late in the season.
Jeff, one of the authors of the fantasy baseball guide,The Process, writes for RotoGraphs, The Hardball Times, Rotowire, Baseball America, and BaseballHQ. He has been nominated for two SABR Analytics Research Award for Contemporary Analysis and won it in 2013 in tandem with Bill Petti. He has won four FSWA Awards including on for his Mining the News series. He's won Tout Wars three times, LABR twice, and got his first NFBC Main Event win in 2021. Follow him on Twitter @jeffwzimmerman.
Jorge de la Rosa?
No, Rubby.
I like Rubby going forward over Jorge.
Jorge also is not on the DL currently.
You may want to put an asterisk next to VMart. The list of baseball players who have come back from microfracture surgery is almost non-existant. And that doesn’t even factor in his age and the fact that the Tigers have too many DH’s already.
This.
We ran into an issue with V-Mart. Is it sure he will qualify at catcher next year? On CBS it says on his player page he may not be eligible.
Do you think Rubby will get more starts than Casey Kelly this year? What do you mean by “late” in the season?
July, August for Rubby.
Casey Kelly is based on how he preforms in the Minors. I would prolly look for a September call-up with perhaps some spot starts. However, in the beginning of the year, if there is an injury in the rotation, Bass will be the spot starter. Maybe even Micah.
Another stupid article by the numb nuts at Fangraphs. Only thing worse than their articles is their rankings.
And the only thing worse than that is stupid comments.
Chris Carpenter. I picked him up in the last round of my 14 team league yesterday to stash in my DL slot.
What about Carlos Carrasco? He was looking promising before falling apart which may have been injury-induced.
I should look into him again. I am biased against him after seeing him flail around in KC for a few seasons.
I also stashed Carpenter, and would be interested to see when you predict him coming back. Nerve issues are very discerning to me, but if I get even a quarter of a season out of him i’ll be happy.
Any particular reason Ryan Howard not mentioned?
The Phillies have not officially put Howard on the DL yet.
Definate? Come on, now. Break down that word.
What about an article that talks about the people that will be on the DL, but are not yet, ie. Jorge de la rosa?
I’d rather read the article about your moms basement Saul. I hear it’s really big and musty down there.
It’s actually kinda tight and stinky.