Crooked Pitch

If you knew that a pitcher was going to earn twice as many wins in 2007 as he did in 2006, would that be valuable to you? Well, it surely would. In fact, that info would be priceless to you, at least for most of these guys below.

• [tag]Boof Bonser[/tag], MIN - Bonser was very impressive in his final 6 starts last season as he went 4-1 with a 2.63 ERA. He’s been equally impressive this spring, pitching 16.0 innings notching 17 K’s and only 2 BB’s. The Twins plan to be contenders this season, and Bonser plans on following Santana in the rotation.

  2006 Win Total - 7
  2007 Projected Win Total - 15

• [tag]Bartolo Colon[/tag], LAA - Colon has just begun throwing in spring training, but is slated to be back in the Halo’s rotation in May.

  2006 Win Total - 1
  2007 Projected Win Total - 8

• [tag]Lance Cormier[/tag], ATL - Cormier has secured a rotation spot this spring for the Braves after being sent down to AAA last season to learn the switch from relief pitcher to starter. He was 2-1 with a 3.25 ERA after his September call up and this spring he’s thrown 15.2 innings with 13 strikeouts and only 1 walk.

  2006 Win Total - 4
  2007 Projected Win Total - 9

• [tag]Matt Garza[/tag], MIN - Garza is still battling Carlos Silva for the 5th Twins rotation spot, and it seems Silva may be leading the fight. Even if Garza spends a month or so in Rochester, you can expect the #1 prospect to prosper once he’s called up.

  2006 Win Total - 3
  2007 Projected Win Total - 9

• [tag]Edgar Gonzalez[/tag], ARI - Gonzalez is battling for the 5th spot in the D-Backs rotation. Manager, Bob Melvin hasn’t awarded the job to him yet, but Gonzalez was quoted as saying, “Yeah, I think maybe I won the job right now.” After his strong finish to 2006 and his 3.32 ERA and 14/2 K/BB rating this spring, it’s hard to imagine him not winning the job.

  2006 Win Total - 3
  2007 Projected Win Total - 7

• [tag]Tom Gorzelanny[/tag], PIT - Gorzelanny hasn’t done too much to excite Pirate fans this spring, but it’s nonsense to think that he’s not going to amass some wins pitching in the #3 spot of the rotation. His K/BB ratios have been fantastic in the minors (2004 - 166/53, 2005 - 124/46, 2006 - 94/27) and he should relocate some of that dominance in 2007.

  2006 Win Total - 2
  2007 Projected Win Total - 8

• [tag]Rich Harden[/tag], OAK - OK. We’ve all heard about his Cy Young type stuff. We also know he’s one weird pitch away from Tommy John surgery. But he’s had a pretty good spring with a 25/3 K/BB ratio in 13.2 innings. That’s news enough for me to add Harden to this list.

  2006 Win Total - 4
  2007 Projected Win Total - 12

• [tag]Jeff Karstens[/tag], NYY - Karstens may have just lost his #5 spot in the rotation due to some arm stiffness, but no matter if he starts the year in the minors or in middle relief, he’ll be an early rotation filler when one of those guys goes down with an injury.

  2006 Win Total - 2
  2007 Projected Win Total - 6

• [tag]John Maine[/tag], NYM - Maine was really good after the All-Star break last season (6-2, 3.28) and has had a pretty good spring (12/3 K/BB ratio in 14.2 innings). Pitching for the Mets doesn’t hurt either.

  2006 Win Total - 6
  2007 Projected Win Total - 12

• [tag]Mike Maroth[/tag], DET - Maroth is known as an injury sleeper due to his bone chips in the elbow problem last season. However, the two previous seasons he pitched 200+ innings and had double digit wins. He’s convinced Jim Leyland that he’s healthy, and that’s all I need to add him here.

  2006 Win Total - 5
  2007 Projected Win Total - 11

I’ve got at least 8 more [tag]starting pitchers that should double their win total[/tag], but I think I’ll make you wait until tomorrow to see ‘em.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2007 at 2:55 pm and is filed under Fantasy Baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.