Is it just me or does the pitcher we’re talking about need to work in showbiz? Particularly as some sort of game show host and even more particularly, the Love Connection. Yeah, lets bring that back, put a 2010s spin on it where all the first dates are just two people standing next to each other at a dance club, smiling at their phones as they’re sending private snapchats back and forth. That’s riveting television people! And later on, JFOH sexted me that he wanted his P in my V, F me in the A and then J off on my T’s and I totes said yes! Magical…true modern love in the making there. He even wrote a song about it. Just an FYI, ICYMI that vid is probably NSFW given context…m’kay. But of course you didn’t come here to find out about JFOH’s creative, more gentle musical side, you came to talk about the man, the myth, the emoticon: Drew Smyly. Yeah, I called him emoticon. I think we should call him that together. It’s better than calling him the Smyly Faced Killer. That’s just morbid. In the end, there’s a lot to like about Drew for the 2014 season and I have a few good reasons why…oh, you wanna know what they are I see. Well then follow me on a magical journey to a distant land by clicking on the title of this post if you’re on the homepage and just seeing this paragraph and see why Smyly is a good get in deep leagues for the 2014 Fantasy Baseball season…
I have it on very good authority that Smyly won’t be sniffing anywhere near the ‘gotta draft’um’ section of your leagues this year. The authority of course is me as I wielded my trusty weapon google, typed ‘Drew Smyly sleeper’, and came back with a ton of articles…from January of 2013. Somehow the whole ‘Doug Fister was traded to the Nationals and Smyly will get a shot as a starter’ is going over a few heads. Of course, being declared a chance at starter isn’t what gives him value. Jeff Weaver was once given a chance to start, too. That’s what they call in the business ‘the opposite of what you’d want from a starter’ and I don’t think Smyly will be anywhere near that. The big thing to realize with Drew is this starting role and trying to extrapolate what he can do isn’t a blind faith jump. We got to see Smyly over 95 innings in 2012 as a starter (18 games). During that stretch, we saw excellent K/9 rates (8.34), a very solid BB/9 rate (2.46), a manageable WHIP (1.21), all of which lead to a great K:BB ratio of 3.38 and a reasonable ERA of 3.79. Now let’s just say for scientific control group reasoning that Smyly didn’t pitch 2013, meaning he made no strides or improvements since 2012. You think those pitching stats don’t play well on your team now? Rhetorical! That stat line over a full – or at least fuller – season would put him in at your SP3 with a K-rate higher than most you’d see in that range. Though he may only see 160 innings, it’s always hard to tell how those innings will be deployed and given the Tigers still have playoff aspirations, you might have to either skip a few starts from him over the course of the year or deal with an early shut down. Whatever the case may be, you’re not overspending to find out if his 2012 can repeat itself or as JFOH’s GF would say, It’s totes amazeballs where he’s going. I’d S that D. I’m starting to think you have a nympho on your hands there JFOH. You lucky bastard…so if you’d like to um…S a D in the late rounds, you can Smyly a Drew to your hearts content.
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.
