To be fair, I’m here to cover deep leagues with these posts and I don’t know if this pitcher applies given how his 2013 season went and how JB Gilpin gushed all over him in his Pitcher Profile of him last year. But then I remembered some of y’all forget that guys who didn’t reach the IP minimum to qualify on certain lists count too and said to myself ‘Oh Em Gee, these kids gotta start doing better research. They need my help!’ Thus was the beginning of this beautiful Corey Kluber sleeper story born, and after wiping all the afterbirth and poo off of it, I bring it to you. Though… I’m not quite ready to cut the umbilical cord on it. You may have to wait a few more wasted opening sentences for that. Sorry, can’t be helped. Grey tells me repeatedly that I must maintain a 200 minimum word count in these openers and that if I dip below that, the bus we’re driving will explode. Which is a weird thing to say considering we’re not on a bus. I’d call it more a minivan. Rudy is mumbling about SIERRA and WAR in his sleep in the back, Tehol is working on his flow by watching Gary The Snail rap (NSFW), JFOH is putting his gum in Mike’s hair, Jaywrong is making Jennifer Lawrence gifs on his laptop, and Tom Jacks is busy reading the politics section of the newspaper. Ha, Tom…what a nerd! But all this to say, Grey is driving this band of misfits while wearing mom jeans so we must abide. But enough about the Razzball Family life, let’s trudge on. So let’s look at why Kluber should be on your radar in deep leagues for the 2014 Fantasy Baseball season…
As I prefaced in the, uh, preface… Corey Kluber should already be known, but, on some levels, he’s not. Sure, he’s being ranked and it’s not like he’s sitting in an undraftable tier by-any-means on most sites, but I’m not seeing the love for how his 2013 season went. By the stats, Kluber should be going much higher than he is in my book, especially when you consider his K/9 would’ve finished top-25 at 8.31 and his BB/9 (2.02) would’ve finished top-20. On top of that, his K:BB ratio would’ve finished 11th if we moved the IP minimum back to 140 for the year. Those aren’t stats that normally go that late in drafts, and yet, he’s kind of an afterthought for all intents and purposes when considering the numbers. I’ve seen him at SP-45 on one site, SP-53 on another and even SPF-50 on another…wait, whoops, I was just shopping for sunscreen in that window. My bad. But all this to say, for top-25 type-numbers, Kluber is getting treated like an SP-4 or worse in a lot of places and that is a major mistake I intend to take advantage of come draft day.
Now before you say “yeah, but that’s only one season of success, I want to see more before I can count on it”, I’d like to point out the team/coaching staff he pitches for: the Indians. Yes, the same team that turned around Ubaldo Jimenez and another pitcher whom many considered un-salvageable coming into 2013 in Scott Kazmir. One pitcher you could write off as a team getting lucky, but three? Hrmm, too much coinkydinks for me to ignore, personally. Now if you’ll hand me my scissors, I present to you a handsome baby Kluber. I’m pretty sure you’ll suffer no postdraftum depression. But please don’t ask me about breastfeeding…
Sky Sperling is a contributor for Razzball Football and Razzball Baseball. He’s also a lover of fine beer, fine women and fine-toothed combs. You can follow him on twitter @Sky_Razzball and in your most sweetest of dreams.
