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Well, there’s better young pitchers that I could go over.  Shizz, there’s better pitchers in the Padres farm system — hello, Simon Castro.  But the whole idea of these posts is not to pinpoint who’s going to be a great pitcher in 2013.  This is about who is actually going to help you this year in fantasy.  It’s t-shirt time and the cab’s here for these guys.  Which brings us to Tim Stauffer.  In the minors, Stauffer had a pretty middling strikeout rate.  Not something I usually look at for sleepers.  His numbers probably won’t make you take your heart meds.  So why the sleeper post and what can we expect of Tim Stauffer in 2011 fantasy baseball?

Stauffer will be a Hodgepadre, at the worst.  You’re looking at a line of 8-7/3.90/1.15/100 in 140 IP.  Then shave a half run off the ERA if you only start him in Petco.  Yes, that’s a 3.40 ERA in roughly half his games.  I’m not sure if I mentioned this before, but, if I did, read it again like you haven’t heard it before.  I’m seriously considering trying an experiment on one of my fantasy teams this year where I own one ace and four Hodgepadres and only start them at home.  The Padres starters last year had a 3.42 ERA in 500 IP in Petco.  Sure, I might need to grab a middle reliever or two to go along with my closers to supplement my Wins and Ks.  Also, I might lose my nads once I start drafting this wonky staff and abandon the dream, but there ya go.  Last year, I did fine starting Clayton Richard and LeBlanc only at home (2.71 ERA for LeBlanc at home; 3.15 for Richard.  That’s in 185 IP, i.e., that’s better than some top 20 starters.).  You may feel like you’re twiddling your thumbs in May while your leaguemates get an early lead in Wins and Ks since you’ve only started four of your pitchers in a handful of games and benched them in others.  People forget it’s a long season.  Roto is cumulative.  The hare doesn’t always win.  A guy like Stauffer is definitely a turtle.  In deep leagues, especially NL-Only, when used judicially, turtles can help steer your team through rough patches and help launch a tequila company.  *Grey wrinkles nose as metaphor gets away from him.*