Jarrod Saltalamacchia- TEX- I might be a little biased since I met Saltalamacchia’s in-laws at a local grocery store (standing out in my Ranger fan gear made it easy for them to brag on him to me) but even I think that his days as a Ranger might be numbered. There is an open competition for the backstop role and Salty is coming off shoulder surgery and a poor, injury-plagued season (.233 average in 283 ABs in 2009). With 246 Ks in 789 career MLB ABs, that doesn’t bode well for winning a job against some stiff competition. Salty’s versatility and ability to play 1B doesn’t’ help him that much with Texas, who have Chris Davis and hot prospect Justin Smoak available there. That’s why he might be attractive trade bait if he shows something in Spring Training and might get dealt instead of given the Texas backstop job.
Taylor Teagarden- TEX- What a difference a year can make. Heading into last season, Teagarden was coming off an impressive major league debut, having hit .319 with 6 homers in just 47 ABs in 2008. Although he spent the entire 2009 season on the Texas roster, Teagarden was strictly a backup and hit a disappointing .217 with the same 6 homers, but in 198 ABs. Striking out 76 times did not impress. When Jarrod Saltalamacchia went down for the year with the team still in contention, the Rangers didn’t give the job to Teagarden. Instead, they acquired veteran Pudge Rodriguez for the stretch. Now, though, Teagarden finds himself in contention for the starting job. There is an open competition between him and Saltalamacchia. There are a couple of factors that give Teagarden and advantage. First, his defensive skills are superior to Salty’s. That is a big plus in real baseball, not so much in fantasy. Second, his minor league OBP of .390 is an indicator that he can control the strike zone much better than he showed in last year’s abysmal performance. Right now, the odds are good that Teagarden comes out of Surprise with the starting job, if he can perform well. Then the question will be how soon Max Ramirez will be challenging for the job, but that’s another story.
Kevin Millwood- BAL- Millwood is not going to benefit as much as one might think from the move away from Arlington. Last season, his home ERA (3.17) was almost a full run lower than his road mark (4.15). Moving from a team with a winning record to one in a rebuilding phase is not going to increase Millwood’s fantasy value. He is also at a risk from the young players who will be behind him. The Texas defense last year was fairly solid, resulting in fewer extended innings for Millwood, who seems to get in trouble the longer he is out there. With a young team in Baltimore, there are probably going to be more defensive gaffes, leading to Millwood getting tired and roughed up more often. His main value to Baltimore is as a veteran presence who can shepherd a young staff to the next level. I don’t know of a fantasy league who has that as a category.
Koji Uehara- BAL-Uehara might be a bullpen sleeper candidate, particularly in leagues that count holds. Last season, in his major league debut, he held batters to a .202 average the first time they saw him in a game. That jumped to .292 the next appearance. Baltimore is planning on using Uehara in a variety of roles, mostly as a middle reliever or setup man. Given that he spent a year as a closer in Japan, he may get a few save opportunities as well.
Josh Johnson- FLA- Johnson cut his hair to conform to team policy. Don’t expect it to have the same effect as it did on Samson, however. Johnson came back strong from a couple of injury plagued seasons, posting a 15-5 record with a 3.23 ERA in 209 IP in 2009. Johnson is now the ace of the staff and a good bet to repeat his effort of a year ago.
Jorge Cantu- FLA- Cantu is still battling some ailments from last season, and showed up early for Spring Training to get some preparation started. He is still bothered by his left hand, which was hit by a Daniel Cabrera fastball. He claims that the badly sprained ankle he suffered in the penultimate game of the season is healed, but it took months before it got better, so that’s still a question mark. Despite the dings and dents Cantu had in 2009, he still hit .289 and drove in 100 runs.
Stephen Strasburg- WAS- The consensus top prospect had his first workout yesterday and did nothing to clam the hype. Strasburg threw 37 pitches, mixing a variety including fastball, two-seamer, slider and change. Early reviews, including one by new member of the Nationals Ivan Rodriguez, were positive. Strasburg is the most polished pitcher to come out of college ever. The hype surrounding him is enormous. It seems to be very well-founded hype, however. Whether you want Strasburg on your fantasy team is going to come down to price. His upside is huge. However, there are question marks. He is playing for the Nationals. It is still not certain that Strasburg will start the season in the majors. If Strasburg can be had at reasonable cost, he is a no brainer, particularly in a keeper league. If, however, your league goes hype-crazy over him, use your resources elsewhere.
Gerald Laird- DET- The Tigers are hoping to get more offensive production out of Laird, who batted an anemic .225 in 2009. They are more than happy with his defensive work, including handling the pitching staff. That alone will probably gain him the bulk of the playing time behind the plate for Detroit. Given that Laird hit .224 in his only other season with more than 400 ABs, the Tigers may be hoping in vain. His .218 average against right handed pitching last year just doesn’t give much of an indicator for improvement.
Johnny Damon- DET- It’s looking like the Tigers will be singing Damon, perhaps even by the time you read this, depending on when you’re getting to your email/checking your web sites. Detroit GM Dave Dombrowski said that significant progress had been made with the free agent. Damon can still offer help in several fantasy categories and his signing will assure that he has a place to give that help.
Toronto Blue Jays- TOR- The Blue Jays are replacing their artificial surface in Rogers Centre with another artificial surface. Purists may still sigh, but the new AstroTurf GameDay Grass 3D is going to be a marked improvement. First off, there will be fewer seams in the new configuration, leading to more consistent defense, which will benefit Toronto pitching. Secondly, the surface is not as hard. This could have an effect on injuries for the Blue Jays. This is one of those seemingly minor factors that can make the difference when deciding between a couple of players on draft day.
Albert Pujols- STL- Pujols said that he now might never have to undergo Tommy John surgery on his right elbow, which was looked at before as something that was somewhere down the line. Debridement surgery and removal of bone chips during the offseason have done wonders for how it feels. It’s scary how good Pujols might be considering what he’s done having had this elbow problem.
Joe Mauer- MIN- The reigning AL MVP reported to camp yesterday. He spent the offseason in a relatively quiet way as far as preparation was concerned. In the past, Mauer had trained rigorously. Then, an injured back kept him from doing that prior to 2009 and he responded with his best season ever. The thought is that Mauer had overtrained in prior years and that was what had led to some injury problems. If that is correct, and he gets a full season in, as opposed to missing the first month like he did in 2009, his numbers could be even more spectacular than the .365-28-123 of last season.
Chan Ho Park- NYY- Park has reportedly signed a 1-year deal with the Yankees. He would have approximately the same role as he did with the Phillies last year, where he registered 13 holds in 45 appearances (7 of them starts) and 83 IP. As a Rangers fan, I still recoil at the name, but Park can have some use in a deep league that counts holds.
Kyle Farnsworth- KC- Word is out from the Royals’ camp that they are toying with the idea of converting the 33-year-old Farnsworth into a starter. The idea evidently germinated in both Farnsworth and Trey Hillman last season. It got more traction when Farnsworth showed up in Surprise, AZ with an effective changeup. The odds are, though, that with a full rotation already, Farnsworth will end up as a swing man and get pressed into rotation duty only as an emergency measure. This doesn’t give him a lot of fantasy value up front, but could make him a sleeper if one of the KC pitchers goes down.
Maicer Izturis- LAA- Izturis will likely be in a similar role as he was last season for the Angels, getting work at 3 different infield positions (2B, 3B, SS) and performing well when he is in there. A strong Batting EYE (.85) and good speed makes Izturis valuable. His limited ABs (387 last season) diminishes that value some. However his versatility and the fact that he will lead off when he starts and will end up with double digits in steals, makes Izturis a useful fantasy player.
Jeremy Affeldt- SF- Affeldt could be in store for a big drop off in performance. He led the NL in holds with 33 and posted an outstanding 1.73 ERA in 2009. However, he benefited greatly from luck, with a .245 BHIP and got off the hook with 18 double play grounders, the most of any NL reliever. With a WHIP of 1.17 despite the luck, he could be in more trouble in 2010. Affeldt certainly will struggle if he doesn’t improve on his .50 BB/IP ratio. Since he has only been below that number once in the past 5 seasons, the odds aren’t good.
