Ubaldo Jimenez - After bumping up his average fastball velocity to 96.1 in 2009, Jimenez was throwing 96-99 consistently on Opening Day against the Brewers. Although he did allow a handful (plus a few) of singles, Jimenez only walked one and fanned six in six innings of work. With a 3.22 ERA, 14/17 quality starts, and nearly a K an inning in the second half last year, Jimenez appears poised to put together a 2010 that might see him in the Cy Young race in the NL. I like our forecast for him much more than the others I've seen.
Colby Rasmus - As Anthony mentioned last fall, if you look at Rasmus through the lens of his stats against righties alone, you'll come up with a bit more favorable impression of his admittedly subpar debut. The 23 year old .280 and slugged over .450 against RHP in 2009, and did all that with a BABIP that was 20-30 points lower than his LD% would suggest, so forecasting .300/.485 isn't very far-fetched. Rasmus got off to a good start toward that end yesterday, homering, walking, and singling in five trips against the Reds. I like the over on most of his forecasts, but if you have daily transactions a platoon partner might help things.
Gaby Sanchez - I see a bit more upside in Gaby Sanchez than a lot of folks, but then again I keep waiting for James Loney as well. Sanchez has hit over .300 with ISO's near .200 and BB:K ratios of nearly one in the past two years in the high minors, and he'll even swipe a few bags once in a while. What's not to like? No, he doesn't have prodigious power, but he just turned 26, and this is a guy that hit 84 doubles in 2007 and 2008 combined. There could be 20 homers in there, and if he hits near .300 with solid plate discipline and a few steals, that's no slouch of a player. His upside is lower than many rookies, but he is by no means useless....he should play in most formats.
Andrew McCutchen - I'm not a huge McCutchen guy like some folks, but I do think he has a solid chance to get to our forecast (which is more optimistic than most others), as he showed quite a bit of power growth last season at age 22, enough so that you might expect to see at least as many homers as he hit last year (16 at two levels). Most other forecasts have him between 12 and 15, so I've got to think that makes him a bit undervalued. Any power growth more than the ordinary and Pittsburgh fans will have a superstar on their hands soon.
J.R. Towles - Towles is another guy for which I think our projection captures his upside a lot better than most. Towles has only had 234 AB's spread out over three seasons at the big league level, and I would contend that that really isn't enough to evaluate him. We've got about 1220 AB's at the minor league level that say that he's close to a .300 hitter with solid power numbers and a good eye, and he even has a smidgeon of speed for a catcher. There isn't much to like about the Astros, but Towles is definitely a sleeper behind the plate.
