Fantasy Baseball

It was a tremendous 2010 campaign for Clay Buchholz, who emerged as a great fantasy option despite pitching in the ultra-competitive AL East.  Now, owners have to decide if they think he can replicate these impressive numbers, or if a regression is in his future:

17 Wins
173.2 Innings
2.33 ERA
1.20 WHIP
120 Strikeouts (6.22 K/9)
67 Walks (3.47 BB/9)
.265 BABIP

Even before Zack Greinke was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers, he was an interesting player to evaluate from a fantasy perspective. 

Last year he disappointed in the follow up season to his 2009 Cy Young campaign.  He won only 10 games (16 in ’09), had a 4.17 ERA (2.16 in’09), and struck out 7.40 batters per nine innings (9.50 K/9 in ’09). 

Cliff Lee signing with the Philadelphia Phillies (click here to view my thoughts) started the week and it was capped off with Zack Greinke joining the Milwaukee Brewers (click here to view my thoughts).  However, those two All-Star pitchers were certainly not the only players to change teams.  Let’s take a look at the other moves that were made over the past seven days.

According to ESPNs Buster Olney (click here for the article) the Royals have traded Zack Greinke and SS Yuniesky Betancourt to the Milwaukee Brewers for SS Alcides Escobar, OF Lorenzo Cain, P Jake Odorizzi and P Jeremy Jeffress.

Last year Colorado’s Carlos Gonzalez and Ubaldo Jimenez went from future stars to MVP and Cy Young candidates respectively. To stay ahead of the game, let’s look at some of last year’s future stars that could follow the Rockies duo’s path and become household names.


Pedro Alvarez, 3B, Pittsburgh Pirates

The surprising decision of Cliff Lee signing with the Phillies ultimately had a major impact on our early starting pitcher rankings.  He always was going to be considered one of the better options in the league for 2011, but now he appears to be a borderline Top 5 option.  Let’s see where he ultimately falls, as well as all the rest in our updated rankings.

Let me just start by saying that I do not want to be writing this article. 

I have always had one major concern with Shin-Soo Choo and that was his average.  Those concerns came courtesy of a consistently elevated BABIP, but back-to-back 20/20 seasons certainly help to assuage these concerns.  It’s hard not to like an outfielder who posted the following numbers in 2010:

For weeks, the baseball world has been waiting on the edge of their seats for the decision by Cliff Lee.  The assumption had long been that Lee would milk his free agency for every last dollar, likely spurning the Texas Rangers, who he had helped lead to their for World Series just weeks earlier, for the New York Yankees. 

Nick Markakis was supposed to be the one middle of the order option that fantasy owners could depend on from the Baltimore Orioles.  Unfortunately, all that we got was a major disappointment. 

Is it something that we should have seen coming?  That’s debatable.

Now, the $64,000 question is if we can expect a rebound in 2011.  Before we can answer that question, we first need to look at what he did in 2010: