As of right now, Dan Straily is in the 2013 Oakland rotation. That is what I’m going off of for this post. So, if you’re coming from Google in three months wondering if Straily will be in the rotation, the answer is “I don’t know, but in November he was.” For more information on the question, click the “Home” tab on the top, go to my newest post and ask if my Dan Straily fantasy post from November still makes sense. This could also be considered “Chekhov’s gun.” It is not foreshadowing that I think Straily is going to make ricin out of castor beans, but it is foreshadowing that I think Straily may not make the rotation. Right now, he’s in it. Moving on! Straily was never a huge prospect, but size doesn’t matter or at least that’s what I tell my lady friends. Baseball America-loves-me-or-not aside, he still tore through the minors last year. In 2012, he was the minor league leader in strikeouts before being called up. To put that in proper perspective, Darin Ruf led the minors in homers. Darin Ruf also prays to a clay statue of Matt Stairs. Either way, what can we expect of Dan Straily for 2013 fantasy baseball?
91.3 MPH was his average fastball after his call up. To put that into clergyman’s terms, holy crap, that’s just above average. Pitchers with a 91.3 MPH fastball don’t overwhelm major league hitters with their fastball. Another warning sign is his 9.2 swinging strike percentage. That is just about average. To give you an idea of some other pitchers with an average swinging strike percentage: Tommy Hanson, Wei-Yin Chen, Ivan Nova. It’s not the kiss of death. If you can get batters to swing outside of the strike zone, or nail lots of first pitch strikes…Well, he was about average in those respects too. He looks a lot more like a 7-ish K-rate guy than a 11+ K-rate guy he was in the minors. He does have solid control, sporting a mid-two walk rate in the minors. For 2013, I’ll give him the line of 9-7/3.85/1.28/155 in 24 starts. That’s a solid end game flyer, especially with the chance he replicates his minor league success and really clicks ass, as they say at NSFW sites. Just don’t expect him to mow the league down. Since “Chekhov’s gun” isn’t mentioned in the 1st paragraph without a callback, twenty-four starts feels optimistic. Colon has re-signed with the A’s and like a fantasy baseball Davy Crockett would say, “Remember the Brad Peacock,” i.e., there’s no guarantee Dan Straily is in the rotation all year.
