So, how’s everyone holding up without fantasy baseball every day? I don’t know what to do with myself! This weekend I wandered into a Starbucks and told the coffeerista about Chris Tillman for 2015. Then I laughed hysterically for a good twenty minutes until someone asked me to leave. We’ve gone over the final 2014 fantasy baseball rankings for hitters and the top 20 starters. There’s no more of these godforsaken recap posts left before we’re into 2015 fantasy baseball. You’re welcome. Well, there are Rudy’s recaps of every fantasy sites projections that are coming eventually and Sky’s “Is pitching that deep?” posts. I, my over-the-internet friend, will be talking about 2015 rookies next. Anyway, here’s the top 40 starters for 2014 fantasy baseball and how they compare to where I originally ranked them:
21. Cole Hamels – This will be a small recurring theme within this recap, I shouldn’t have panicked as much on spring training injuries to pitchers. I liked Hamels and Iwakuma in the preseason, then they had arm injuries and I backed off. Though on the other side of that is Mike Minor and Latos, two guys I also backed off on. See, I was able to turn that around into a positive. Your New Agey chakra shizz is working for me, Deepak! Preseason Rank #31, 2014 Projections: 11-10/3.68/1.18/192, Final Numbers: 9-9/2.46/1.15/198
22. Hisashi Iwakuma – Hisashi my dashi — slurp SLURP! One small note, Wade Davis had SP elginbaylorbility and ranked 22nd overall for pitchers on our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater, but since he was used in relief this past year, I skipped him in my recap. Hisashi’s ERA was up a tad from his(ashi) 2.66 in 2013, but he was a better pitcher for the majority of the year until he flamed out at the end of the year due to an injury. This is almost as raycess as saying Asians are good at math, which I personally find to be the least offending stereotype of all-time — Oh, no, they called me smart! — but the Asian import pitchers are proving themselves to be hella reliable. Preseason Rank #33, 2014 Projections: 10-6/3.59/1.10/145, Final Numbers: 15-9/3.52/1.05/154
23. Doug Fister – For a guy with a name like Fister, you’d expect at least a few punch outs. I guess it depends on your definition of ‘a few,’ but holy schnikeballs his Ks were low last year. Jake Diekman and six other relievers had more Ks than Fister last year. Fister’s Ks were so bad, I looked at two different sources to make sure there wasn’t a mistake. There wasn’t. Preseason Rank #32, 2014 Projections: 11-9/3.57/1.23/140, Final Numbers: 16-6/2.41/1.08/98
24. Sonny Gray – Hey it’s my boy! Hey, boy! Say hello to your mother for me. Hey, your mother is my boo! Hey, boo! Gray could be put into the same category as Teheran from the top 20 starters. Sure, he didn’t perform anywhere near as I would’ve hoped, yet he performed exactly as I hoped. Uh-oh, I’ve painted myself into a logic corner. Prepare for me to Dutch Boy my way out. Gray’s K-rate dropped, walk rate went up, got lucky to have such a low ERA, so he didn’t pitch that well. But for the stats that matter — ERA, WHIP, Ks and Wins, he was as good as advertised. Preseason Rank #26, 2014 Projections: 13-7/3.32/1.17/195, Final Numbers: 14-10/3.08/1.19/183
25. Collin McHugh – The first of the “Holy shizzbird, what are they feeding Astros pitchers down there?” By the by, Shizzbird reminded me of Yardbird by Charlie Parker, and I went to a screening the other night for Whiplash, which is about jazz. Not sure if it’s out yet, but when it does come out, you should check it out. Great movie, and it has Paul Reiser! Okay, Reiser’s a reason you may not want to go, but you still should. Yes, jazz is another reason you may not want to go, but seriously it’s good. Unlike Keuchel, McHugh has terrific peripherals and solid stuff. How did he come out of nowhere? Well, he was on the Rockies, which is death for pitchers, and he was on the Mets, which is death for everything wonderful. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 11-9/2.73/1.09/157
26. Jered Weaver – Something I haven’t mentioned much of yet in the pitcher recaps (which is bizarre since I’ve mentioned a bunch of crap — I call these my recraps), I simply guess at a Wins projection in the preseason. I mean, you can say the Angels will win games and Weaver should go deep into games, so Weaver should win games, but that’s still guessing. There’s no accounting for run support. Throw out Weaver’s extra four wins from his projections and you have a guy that is pretty yawnstipating. His ERA was only 50th best, his WHIP only 35th best and his Ks only 36th best. It was a decent season, but 26th overall is overstating his case. Preseason Rank #35, 2014 Projections: 14-8/3.44/1.10/140, Final Numbers: 18-9/3.59/1.21/169
27. Matt Shoemaker – He had 16 wins and only started 20 games. Granted, some of the wins came in middle relief, but The Cobbler would’ve challenged Denny McLain if he had 33 starts. That’s challenging him to the live-ball single-season Wins record, not challenging McLain to a fight because Denny would beat his ass. By the by, the bar manager should see 2014 and call over the bouncer if you’re checking IDs for being in the live-ball era. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 16-4/3.04/1.07/124
28. James Shields – At 32 years old, you don’t usually see many positive trends in peripherals for pitchers. Usually all you see is velocity falling and the pitcher losing his stuff. Shields is an anomaly. His walk rate fell by almost a full walk per nine while everything stayed pretty close to the same. He began to use his changeup more effectively in the 2nd half of the season and it helped bring him out of a real ugly May and June (4.70+ ERA). In the end, this did nothing to his season stats. Just was a bit of a roller coaster getting there. Preseason Rank #23, 2014 Projections: 14-10/3.47/1.22/193, Final Numbers: 14-8/3.21/1.18/180
29. Masahiro Tanaka – Since I’m quick to point out where I’m right even though my ranking is wrong, I should point out that I was totally wrong on Tanaka even though his ranking ended pretty close to his preseason one. If he would’ve stayed healthy all year, he would’ve been a top ten starter, maybe top five. Too bad the Yankees only got two-thirds of a season from him for $250 million. Oh, well, drop in the bucket! Preseason Rank #27, 2014 Projections: 14-8/3.39/1.11/187, Final Numbers: 13-5/2.77/1.06/141
30. Jeff Samardzija – Alphabet Soup became a different pitcher last year. It happens. Or as the librarian says, “Shhh…it happens.” He must’ve finally realized that if he was going to be successful he needed to cut back on his walks, even if it meant he was going to lose a few Ks. His K-rate dropped, but his walk rate did too, so he ended up having the best year in his career. Halleluzija! Preseason Rank #61, 2014 Projections: 10-12/3.88/1.32/197, Final Numbers: 7-13/2.99/1.07/202
31. Alex Wood – Wanna reason Fredi Gonzalez should be fired besides the joke of leading off with B.J. like he was a Catholic school girl? On May 10th, I wrote something like this, “Gavin Floyd is returning to the Braves so they’re moving Wood to the bullpen. Eff me in the coolie.” And that’s me paraphrasing me! Yes, Fredi moved a top 30 starter to the bullpen, Grey says incredulously. Preseason Rank #82, 2014 Projections: 8-2/3.71/1.31/141, Final Numbers: 11-11/2.78/1.14/170
32. Scott Kazmir – I was about to say it was nice to have a full season of Kazmir finally after five years of injury-shortened ones. Then I saw his 5.42 post-All Star break ERA and I wonder if he was actually healthy in August (7.80 ERA) and September (4.35 ERA). Methinks not. Methinks methinks is my new favorite word, too. Preseason Rank #76, 2014 Projections: 9-7/3.85/1.29/145, Final Numbers: 15-9/3.55/1.16/164
33. Dallas Keuchel – There’s no denying Keuchel went from “Who dat now?” to “Gimme gimme gimme some good love.” His K-rate of 6.6 and 90 MPH fastball read to me more of a guy that just had his best season of his career. In his first, no less. Over so fast? ‘Fraid so. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 12-9/2.93/1.18/146
34. Carlos Carrasco – There’s a case to be made that Carrasco shouldn’t have been included because a lot of his season was spent as a middle reliever. I won’t be making that case, hence me including him in the rankings. Carrasco was included in the top 100+ starters in the preseason, because I always liked him. In Triple-A in 2013, he showed his nasty stuff, and at just about every minor league stop. He was only barely ranked because his control was always terrible, and he was never any good in the majors. This year, that obviously all changed like how one reacts to being sneezed on in the Dallas area has changed. It went from “God bless you” to “EBOLA! STOP, DUCK and ROLL!” Preseason Rank #105, 2014 Projections: 5-9/4.31/1.35/112, Final Numbers: 8-7/2.55/0.99/140
35. Ian Kennedy – Seriously, you think I’m joking when I say on one team next year I’m drafting all Rockies hitters and Padres pitchers. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 13-13/3.63/1.29/207
36. Wily Peralta – How many wins is it fair to take away from Peralta because of luck? Three? Four? Three? Tricked you, I already suggested three! You fell for the oldest trick in the book, mon! Okay, let’s remove three wins since I suggested that twice (Arbitrary points!). That means Wily would’ve earned $4.1 in wins rather than $6.8. That difference means he was about as valuable as Ervin Santana, the 57th best starter. Do you see how poisonous trusting wins can be? Do you see how histrionic I’m being by saying poisonous? Do you?! Your turn to answer. Preseason Rank #64, 2014 Projections: 12-11/3.94/1.34/142, Final Numbers: 17-11/3.53/1.30/154
37. Hyun-Jin Ryu – Hiroki Kuroda just texted me. He wrote, “I used to be Ryu.” Then an emoji on a park bench wearing a paper bag on its head. No idea what that means. Preseason Rank #43, 2014 Projections: 13-9/3.52/1.22/147, Final Numbers: 14-7/3.38/1.19/139
38. Wei-Yin Chen – See what I said about Peralta? If you can’t, you might want to visit your eye doctor. Okay, take what I said about Peralta and subtract four wins and you have…Itzhak Perlman! Hmm, math’s wrong there, but you don’t have as good a pitcher as it appears Chen is. Preseason Rank #98, 2014 Projections: 10-12/4.11/1.29/144, Final Numbers: 16-6/3.54/1.23/136
39. Alex Cobb – The Tampa Bay Peach didn’t reach the heights I set for him in the preseason, but he didn’t really do much worse either, if you were to add in an extra five starts that he missed due to injury. Then you throw in the Rays only won four games in the 2nd half of the year (around that), and Cobb was actually much better if not accounting for wins. Either way, I owned Cobb on a few teams, and he didn’t lose those leagues for me. Thanks, Prince Fielder! Preseason Rank #13, 2014 Projections: 15-6/2.96/1.09/189, Final Numbers: 10-9/2.87/1.14/149
40. R.A. Dickey – Some would look at Cobb and Dickey right next to each other and think they must’ve been sword fighting, but I think those people are just being coy. R.A. Dickey? Or R.U.A. Dickey? That’s tricky, to rock (a rhyme) that’s right (on time). It’s tricky. Dickey’s problems after the Mets revolve around his control, which is ironic since his knuckler doesn’t revolve. He’s lost a full walk per nine since his 2012 Cy Young year and with it he’s gone from a 2.73 ERA pitcher to a 3.70-ish one. Maybe Dickey gets back that control, but I wouldn’t remove the splash guard from the toilet seat just yet. Preseason Rank #48, 2014 Projections: 15-13/3.97/1.22/182, Final Numbers: 14-13/3.71/1.23/173
