My predilection is to draft rookie hitters over rookie pitchers. Predilection is also one dirty sounding word. Slap an NC-17 stamp on the word predilection, Tipper Gore! Actually, I’m not sure I’ve ever drafted a rookie pitcher outside of an NL or AL-Only league and/or keeper. Further (Grey just won’t stop!), I’m not sure I’ve ever drafted a rookie in a standard redraft league who was slated to start the year in the minors. By standard redraft, I mean leagues with waivers. I don’t believe in sitting on lottery tickets on my bench. Obviously, there’s times when this should’ve been done. Trout’s rookie year comes to mind; Braun’s rookie year was a thing of beauty; even last year’s Bryant was someone that would’ve been nice to grab in drafts. The rookies that are worthwhile to sit on from March until they’re called up are few and far between, and aside from Trout and Braun’s rookie years, you can draft a guy who is slated to start the year in the majors around the same time as any rookie and get just as good of value. I.e., Bryant was solid last year, but you could’ve drafted a ton of guys that were solid when he was drafted. I bring all of this up now because today’s rookie, Julio Urias, won’t start the year in the majors. He’s young enough to be Jose Tabata’s wife’s grandchild, listed currently at 19 years old. But I think there’s something to super-young Latino players. As we have a Latin 30 in the Razzball glossary, which means a player says they’re one age but are really much older, I think there’s an opposite phenomenon with Latin players who are super young. They don’t want to do anything but play baseball, so when a major league team asks to sign them, they say they’re 16, as Urias did with the Dodgers, but he could be 12 years old and no one has any idea. Since he’s 19 going on 12, which was also a Jennifer Garner movie remake that Subway Jared tried to greenlight, Urias will start the year in the minors, and won’t be up until June at the earliest and may not be up at all this year. Anyway, what can we expect from Julio Urias for 2016 fantasy baseball?
Since I’ve already mentioned I don’t draft players who don’t start the year in the majors and Urias won’t start the year in the majors, it’s fair to wonder why I’m talking about him. My reasoning is because he could be the best pitcher in the minor leagues. Lucas Giolito is up there, Jose Berrios is nasty, and Urias is 19 years old and dominant. In Double-A last year, he had a 2.77 ERA and a 9.8 K/9. That was against much more seasoned competition. He could come up in June and be a top 20 starter for the next ten years, think Felix Hernandez. Seriously. That good. The only red flag I’ve heard is he had a tumor removed in his eye and there was concern of future blindness in that eye. This problem seems cleared up now, though it’s left him with a Fetty Wap eye. To fix the problem, Urias had cosmetic surgery to have his left eye lifted. Geez, not even in Los Angeles yet and already worried about how he will look. I’d get some butt filler, if I were him. If I were him! I’m not saying I have butt filler. *Grey bounces up and down on his plump booty* As long as Urias didn’t use Janice Dickinson’s plastic surgeon (yikes!), he should be fine. Fine for the Dodgers in June or September, that is. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he’s called up in June, projecting him for the line of 7-2/3.29/1.18/78 in 75 IP. Definitely someone I will add in all leagues when he arrives, but not someone I’m concerned about in redraft leagues this March. For keepers, get on him with the quickness.
