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I’m taking a break from telling you some obvious guys are keepers (Joey Votto is a keeper?!  Get outta town, Grey!) to tell you Jhoulys Chacin is a keeper in some leagues.  No, he’s not a keeper in 12 team mixed leagues if you’re choosing between him and Halladay (unless Halladay will cost you $75).  At some point in January, I’m going to quote this article telling you how much I like Chacin in redraft leagues.  Sleeper, anyone?  At some point in March, I’ll probably post one of my teams and you’ll see Chacin on there.  Not to mention, I have Chacin already on a keeper team of mine, so I’m pot committed.  Yes, I’m holding Yo-lease tight.  In his 2010 — rookie! — season, Chacin put up a line of 9-11/3.28/1.27/138 in 137 1/3 IP.  Ah, yes, the magical more strikeouts than inning thing-a-ma-boob.  Sign me up for Chacin in every league.  The days of Rockies pitchers looking like they stayed in a Super 8 the night before are over.  So what can we expect of Jhoulys Chacin for 2011 fantasy baseball and what makes him a keeper?

You ready to spit your rice pudding out of your mouth?  Chacin can be a 2010 Ubaldo in 2011.  In 60 1/3 IP after the All-Star break, he had a 2.24 ERA.  The batting average against him was .218.  Yeah, that’s a small sample size.  In the entire year, he only had one month over a 4.00 ERA.  It was July.  That month he had a 6.32 ERA in 15 2/3 IP.  He had one bad month.  The 15 2/3 IP in July is really the small sample size that is hurting all his other numbers.  And even in that one bad month, he had a 10.74 K/9.  He also was hit by bad luck in July, and his xFIP was 3.86.  Take July out of the picture, Chacin’s ERA is 2.88 in 121 2/3 IP.  No foolin’.  That’s pretty good doode.  Oh, and he was in the bullpen in July where he obviously wasn’t comfortable.  He’s really a starter.  Chacin will probably cost you a last round pick or only a few dollars to keep.  At those prices, I like him a lot.  Sorry, if this is blowing the cover off one of your hidden gems; you’re so Anne Frank.