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Well he ain’t Ty, that’s for sure.  *Laugh track begins*  Well if he isn’t Thai, then what is he?  Vietnamese?  Micro-Polynesian?  And who are we talking about exactly?  Did you accidentally delete a sentence?  This is a really confusing intro.  Sorry, readership, it was an inside joke that somehow escaped like an alien from Ripley’s chest.  For those who googled ‘Ripley’s chest’ expecting to either find Alien 3 or Sigourney Weaver’s bosom, welcome to Razzball!  I’ll be your special host for this post where we try and find the truth to whether a player is a draft day discount or if they’re going low for a good reason.  Why am I a special host?  Well you see, I’m Sky from Razzball fantasy football and I’ve come here to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.  Wait, no, that’s what I do on Saturdays.  What I’m here to do is talk to you about Ty…I mean Alex Cobb of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and how he just might be a pitcher of interest for 2013 fantasy baseball…

If you came to my post wanting me to lie to you, I’m not your guy.  I’m all about cold hard facts as you can tell from the first paragraph *rereads first paragraph*…okay, that’s a little hard to gather from what I first wrote, I guess.  But just to prove that, I’m going to say to you that this is an organizational call.  The Rays have proven they know how to handle their young talent, plain and simple, especially when reviewing their young pitchers.  David Price has proven that.  James Shields proved that.  Heck, even Wade Davis proved the Rays knew how to take advantage of not just great talent but mediocre talent as well.  So I’m here to say that Alex Cobb is above Davis but is below Price in terms of talent.  But under a 4.03 ERA was a 3.54 xFIP through 136.1 IP.  You don’t get those numbers over the course of that many innings without some some ability to pitch at the major league level.  When you factor in a K-rate of 7 per 9 – which should grow in 2013 – and a team that defends well in the Rays – trust me when I say they didn’t pick up James Loney for his 30 HR potential *giggles to self* – Cobb has a shot to give you 180 innings, 150 K, a 3.75 ERA (with room for upside), and 12 wins.  Yeah, it sounds boring but let’s consider that Bill James is estimating almost the exact same line for Hiroki Kuroda in 30 more innings but Hiroki is going over 100 spots higher according to current ADPs at MDC.  For me, the value is there for a solid SP4 or SP5 with high wins potential given his surrounding environment.  No, I don’t mean that regarding the AL East.  I hate that he’s there but the Rays find ways to win and it starts with their pitching.  Now ain’t that a peach!  You don’t get the Tampa Bay Peach reference do you?  Yeah neither do I, I’m just playing off of Grey’s Alex Cobb fantasy last year hoping someone out there can explain it to me.  And you thought MY intros were weird…anywho, Alex Cobb presents a good value for deeper leagues and is a discount of sorts when you compare expectations of other ‘more trusted’ pitchers like a Kuroda.  With that, insert your own obligatory ‘take a bite out of Cobb’ reference here cuz I’m out, homies…of course I’m kidding.  You’re not my homies.