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.