Pitching wins championships right? Well, at least in this leagues short history that is the case. Let's take a look to see who has the advantage going in this year.
Lets start with the champ. North Country United showed us all that you don't need to have the best hitting team to win it all. Can he repeat this year? He definitely has the arms for it at the top of his rotation led by CC Sabathia, Johan Santana & Jon Lester. All have 20 win potential IMO, and are good strikeout starters. In the bullpen NCU has 2 top notch closers in Jonathan Papelbon & Fransisco Rodriguez. I expect the Mets to be a lot better this year with a healthy offense, so K-rod should have a few more opportunities. Andrew made a great move in the playoffs and picked up Rafael Soriano. Soriano blew up against the Phillies on 9/19 which led to his release from the Pandas. Soriano will be the Rays closer to start the year, and I really don't see any competition there. I am not sure why Kuroda was not protected in the 2nd wave of pitchers. Jason Marquis of the Nationals was, and then Joel Pineiro as his final pick. Both pitchers have very low K/9 and will hurt Andrew's overall number this year. Definite head scratching moves to me.
To go with his pretty awesome lineup, KungFuPandas has a pretty nasty pitching staff as well.
Kudos to Jamie for scouting these younger guys last year and drafting them a few rounds before others were looking at them. I kept waiting for Zack Greinke to fall back down to earth last year....never happened. Same thing with Felix Hernandez, I knew he had the stuff to be an ace, but in his young career never showed it. Last year he was great. He beat his career best in ERA by almost 1 full point. Yovani Gallardo was one of the best pitchers in the NL in the first half last year, had a down second half, but think he will return to that 1st half form this season. If Bills Jackson/Lackey for Cantu deal was bad, Jamie & Josh's Wainwright for Zack Duke deal was just as bad. There were other players involved, but the jist of it when comparing A to B was Wainwright for Duke. Imagine where Duffs team would be with Wainwright this year. Great example of buy/sell high by Jamie. Andrew Bailey was filthy last year, and he should be just as good for this season. Jamie's bottom line starters are good, but I am not sold on all of them especially Javier Vazquez.
Ask any Yankees fan their opinion/projection about Vazquez this year. It will probably not be that great. Vazquez leaves one of the best pitching parks in the bigs in Turner Field, and goes to NY where people were calling it the Coors of the AL at one point last year. Vazquez now has to deal with the most deadly lineups in baseball, the AL East. I see 3.90 ERA, 1.25 WHIP in Vazquez future, a far stretch from his brilliant season last year.
The Beantown Brawlers have a great staff as well led by Tim Lincecum. Lincecum is no doubt the best pitcher in the game today.
Josh Beckett is hit or miss for me. Not a big fan of the AL East pitchers as noted above. To prove this theory, look at Beckett's numbers vs the AL East last year. 5.43 ERA/1.40 WHIP. Considering he finished with 3.86 ERA/1.19 WHIP that is a pretty big jump in stats. In the leagues biggest blockbuster deal Bill received Tommy Hanson from me, and he should continue to prove that he is an ace in the making this year. Jonathan Broxton is one of the best young closers in the game, and should net Beantown a ton of saves. Jorge De La Rosa is a great strikeout pitcher as well, should average again close to 1 k per inning. He actually pitched well for the Rockies down the stretch last year in their 2nd half comeback. Latos is a nice young arm, and Johnny Cueto is a gamble. Cueto was one of the best pitchers in baseball after the first 2 months of the season. Still laughing over that 2/3 IP, 9 Run line vs the Phillies last summer that pushed Bills ERA to like 400 for the week. If Cueto can find that early season magic again, then Beantowns pitching will once again be one of the best in the league.
Xtreme Dynasty had a lot of question marks when it came to his hitting, well the same is for his pitching staff as well. There is no questions though in regards to his ace Josh Johnson. Johnson had NL CY Young type numbers last year, and I think he will put up similar numbers this season. I passed over Brett Anderson in the draft last year for fellow teammate Trevor Cahill, but picked up Anderson at the right time. This lefty has power and should be one of the best pitchers for the A's this year. Only problem is run support. The questions come with the next couple of guys starting with Cole Hamels. Will Hamels ever regain his ace status? When Hamels was on last year, he was very good. 16 of his 33 starts netted him 2 or less runs. When Hamels was off, he was pretty bad though. Which Hamels will we get in 2010? Another pitcher with questions is Chad Billingsley. Billingsley was great in the 1st half last year, but a mess in the 2nd half. One good thing about him this year is the pressure is now on Clayton Kershaw as the new ace of the staff. Kevin Slowey has two permanent screws in his throwing wrist. You never know how that will play out. I was very high on Slowey last year. Edinson Volquez had TJS last year and will not be back until late summer at the earliest. Will Volquez return strong? Jose Valverde for me was a no brainer especially coming to Detroit where he will have a lot more opportunities then he did pitching in Houston.
Trading Places was the theme for J-Fraud's top pitchers in the offseason. Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee & John Lackey all have new homes to start the year. Halladay should challenge Lincecum in the NL for the CY Young award. He could be close to a 20 game winner this year in Philly. His strikeout totals should increase as well pitching in the NL. Cliff Lee should fare well in the AL West as it is the weakest of all AL divisions when it comes to hitting. I am not a huge Lackey or Burnett fan. Its the division. Burnett got lit up by the Red Sox last year, which killed his ERA. Both pitchers should be near 15 wins though. J-Frauds top 4 pitchers are as good as any when they are on. I like John Danks, good young pitcher but closing his games are Bobby Jenks who was awful for me last year. I think in Jenks 6 blown saves, i think my boy Gavin Floyd was victim of at least half of those. Fuentes should still be in the line for saves in LA, but ERA/WHIP numbers aren't great for a closer.
CT Crush has the entire Rays starting rotation on his team. LOL. I think this is a make or break year for David Price. He definitely has been a disappointment thus far. I'd like to see him pitch well this year. A couple of guys I like a lot from this team is Wade Davis who is on CT Crush's minor league roster. This kid shows that he has the resolve to be a pitcher in the bigs. After getting blown up for 8 runs in less then 3 innings vs the Red Sox, he comes back and pitches a CG 4H, 10K shutout in his very next start. I think he will be the Rays best pitcher this year. In fact minus those 8 runs vs Boston, we only gave up 7 runs in his other 5 starts
last year. Pretty impressive. Netfali Feliz has one of the best arms in all of baseball. Jordan Zimmerman is also a guy I like. He had TJS last year, and will miss most of this year, but he was very impressive for the Nationals last year. My main gripe was the first round keeper of Jeff Niemann over Joakim Soria. When you have Mariano Rivera calling you one of the best closers in the game, you know he is special. Niemann over fellow teammate James Shields would have been weird too. Bruce has no closers on roster currently. Some people call closers the kickers off fantasy baseball, but I think Soria would have helped this team more then Niemann would have.
The Montreal Expos drafted Ricky Nolasco #1 overall in the expansion draft. It was a great move looking back at it. I think Nolasco can pitch like he did in 2008. The other choices would have been Javy or Wandy, so I think he got the pitcher with the most upside. When you think of upside Brian grabbed two players from bitter rivals, Phil Hughes & Clay Buchholz. Hughes might be in line for the 5th starter spot in NY, if not he was a very effective setup man for the Yanks. As a reliever his K/9 was well over 9. Boston fans have been waiting for Clay Buchholz, and he pitched pretty well last year. He could be a 15 win pitcher this year. Max Scherzer nice young arm, don't like him as much in the AL as I did in the NL West. Randy Wolf is nice solid vet who should pitch well for Milwaukee this year.
Relief pitchers seemed to be the theme when it came to Team Wood's draft. He nabbed Joakim Soria from Bruce to anchor his team. He then added Carlos Marmol who has the Cubs closer job right now. Daniel Bard is a high strikeout reliever and is one Papelbon injury or blow up for moving in and being a closer for a 90+ win team. Brad Lidge was horrendous last year, but where he was drafted and the choices from Marv's team, I think it was a good gamble. There was a slight scare with Team Wood's ace Jair Jair Jurrjens when he had a MRI on his shoulder, but he appears fine. Jurrjens might not be elite when it comes to K's but he is very underrated. The White Sox might have the best pitching rotation in baseball. Gavin Floyd is a great young pitcher. His curve is probably one of the best in the league. Dan has some young prospects as well with Rick Vandenhurk and Bud Norris, both have good strikeout potential.
If Team Hanson struggles this year, it is going to be because of his pitching. Kevin has two aces in Matt Cain & Jake Peavy. Peavy I especially like, and will finally get some run support. He is a dark horse for AL Cy Young honors. I love NL west pitchers mainly because of the weak lineups they face so I expect similar numbers for Cain this year as well. The question marks come after these two. Fransisco Liriano has been so disappointing that I think they should make a t-shirt about him. Fransisco Liriano disappointing fantasy owners since 2007. Just like Phil Hughes, questions about where Joba will be in the yanks pitching scheme make me worried. Kevin has 3 closers currently so he should have a jump start in saves on many, but I worry that Aardsma & Fransisco may only have the job short term. Mike Pelfrey is someone who is borderline waiver material. Man, do the Mets have starting pitching problems.
When it comes to mediocre pitching staffs look no further then the Duffs. Plenty of question marks when it comes to this team starting with his ace Scott Kazmir. Kazmir is everyones sleeper pitcher this year, so much so he is being over drafted in leagues. Easy choice for Josh to keep him though. Joe Nathan will have another great season closing for the Twins. Homer Bailey pitched well down the stretch. Good young prospect. Marc Rzepczynski is among like 10 pitchers fighting for a job in the Blue Jays rotation. It will come down to who pitches best this spring. Brian Matusz who is on Josh's minor league squad should be a nice add as well. Duffs got a little unlucky on the trade market last year. Hopefully this year, his luck turns around.
To be succesful this year, Brandon Webb must come back strong. A healthy Webb & Justin Verlander give Marv a pretty nice 1-2 punch. Rick Porcello is only 21 years old. He has a lot of talent and could be poised for a breakout season. Marv has two solid closers in Fransisco Cordero and Brian Wilson. The big gamble comes with Dice K, Matsuzaka will never pitch like he did two years ago, but he could be a nice sleeper this year. Bronson Arroyo had a 2.24 ERA after the all-star break last year, hopefully that momentum continues into the start of this season. I probably would have taken a gamble with Lidge on 2nd wave of keepers.
