Something that may help you is my pitchers pairing post. Something else that may help you is our Fantasy Baseball War Room. Something else that may also help you is J.B.’s top 100 starters. So, these starters are all being drafted after 200 overall. Now, this is a (legal-in-all-countries-except-Trinidad-and-Tobago) supplement to my top 100 starters for 2015 fantasy baseball. To give Credence to Fogerty’ing up your draft, last year this post had in it Sonny Gray, Corey Kluber, Tyson Ross, Yordano Ventura, Zack Wheeler and Erasmo. Hey, they weren’t all gems. Click on the player’s name where applicable to read more and see their 2015 projections. Also, I’ve gone over all positions for sleepers; to see them all 2015 fantasy baseball sleepers. Anyway, here’s some starters to target for 2015 fantasy baseball:
Matt Shoemaker (Yahoo 253, ESPN 282) Yes, he is by far the best starter on the Angels, but all of that aside, I’m legitimately concerned that Yahoo or ESPN are going to Magoo their way into having their rankings make sense. I.e., “Shoemaker is ranked soooooo low it’s insane” *cut to three months later* “And Shoemaker just went down with some unforeseen injury.” Seriously, that’s the only way their rankings will make sense at the end of the year.
Collin McHugh (Yahoo 217, ESPN 171) I’m strongly considering moving the cutoff for this post to after-250. I mean, McHugh at 217? Maybe if you’re ranking players by their weight and he just ate 50 packages of Ring Dings. He had a 9.1 K/9, 2.4 BB/9 and 3.11 xFIP last year. Basically, he was awesome or wasome if you’re in a rush.
Michael Pineda (Yahoo 231, ESPN 189) What I’m trying to figure out is what am I going to be drafting while I wait until 220 overall to take my 2nd starter. I’m no Yankee sympathizer and I’d rather watch Bruce Jenner creatively put on a bikini, but there’s no reason why Pineda is ranked in the 230s.
Danny Salazar (Yahoo 243, ESPN 221) He had a 9.8 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 last year. That’s very good. That was in 110 innings. He throws 95 MPH. None of this is fluky. Short, declarative sentences are the way of the future. Way of the future.
Mike Fiers (Yahoo 203, ESPN 217) Yeah, it’s really not that hard to put together a staff after the top 200. You could put one of those drinking bird toys that bobs its head next to your mouse and let it select your pitching staff. Fiers has some injury concerns this offseason, but he had a 9.5 K/9, 3.15 xFIP and a 2.1 BB/9. Why am I feeling hot under my collar? Maybe cause there’s a Fiers burning in my loins.
Shelby Miller (Yahoo 243, ESPN 233) I love Italian food but I can take or leave Chicken Cacciatore (no relation to Joe Torre). That’s how I feel about Shelby. I love the pitchers in this post, but Miller’s kinda Chicken Cacciatore. I do think he can do better than other sites’ ranking of him, but he’s not exactly manicotti.
J.A. Happ (Yahoo unranked, ESPN 399) To paraphrase a conversation I had recently with Rudy, “You ranked Hank Effin’ Conger but not Happ?” Happles and oranges, perhaps, but my non-ranking of Happ didn’t sit right with Rudy and he told me so! That was his right. At least I think so, I’m in LA and he’s in Texas, so I don’t know if we follow the same laws. Some other guys I didn’t rank that have positive values for Rudy: Bud Norris, Lohse, Dioner Navarro, Fartolo, Collmenter, Niese, Harang, Fnlsqa…Sorry, I totally fell asleep. What were we talking about? Oh, yeah, players that I didn’t rank that Rudy’s rankings have as positive values. Yeah, I’m aware of who I didn’t rank. The only one that stands out to me is Happ. I do like Safeco for starters, but then I look at his age (32) and his career 4.35 xFIP in 840 2/3 IP and I’m less enthused. I’m not going to rank Happ, but in very deep leagues where getting innings from the last starters on your team is very important, I could see drafting Happ (think AL-Only, 16-team mixed leagues and deeper).
James Paxton (Yahoo 250, ESPN 391) “Hey, Tristan, can you rank Paxton for us? I got invited to Benihana for Berry’s birthday party and I had one too many Buddhas. Thanks!” Tristan pulls his minivan to the side of the road to pick up his cellphone because safety first, “No, you know what? I’m done! You’re not gonna have Tristan to kick around anymore! You rank him.” “Fine, doode, no need to lose your chill. I’ll rank him.” And that’s how Paxton was ranked after Marco Gonzales, Marco Estrada, Charlie Morton, Scott Feldman, Jorge De La Rosa, Mark Buehrle and Roenis Elias, just to name but a few guys that are in front of him on ESPN’s rankings.
Jesse Hahn (Yahoo 281, ESPN 328) *shrugs* I don’t know, I guess I won’t draft any starters until the 300s. Fo’reallies, someone please don’t draft any starters in their RCL until the last rounds. (Signups are still going, by the by, but only a few spots left, so if you haven’t, now is the time.)
Kevin Gausman (Yahoo unranked, ESPN 216) I don’t think he can go another season throwing 95 MPH with an under 7 K/9. Something’s gotta give, Nancy Meyers. I get the feeling we’re going to have moments of absolute brilliance from Gausman, ending with him in the 8.5 K/9 range and on the verge of a breakout for 2016.
Taijuan Walker (Yahoo unranked, ESPN 288) We still might be a year away from Walker breaking out, but I’m willing to take a flyer on him to find out. Don’t Taijuanna find out too?
Kendall Graveman (Yahoo unranked, ESPN 501) Like Dracula, I was pretty bleh on the Graveman in the top 100 starters. As Kendrick Lamar would tell you, shizz don’t change unless you get up and wipe your ass. To pimp this butterfly, nothing Graveman’s done in the spring erases the fact that his K-rates have been awful in the minor leagues. He had a 5.17 K/9 in Triple-A and a 5.96 K/9 in High-A. From the few videos I watched of him, he looks like a guy that stays around the zone and induces grounders. I don’t hate that if he’s throwing 93 MPH, but I wouldn’t predict a huge breakout from him either and inducing contact will mean he always has one foot in the Graveman.
