Vernon Wells’ move to the New York Yankees doesn’t even come close to making Wells fantasy relevent. I would rather wait for Adam Eaton to return from his injury, or take a gamble on Yasiel Puig . Even Logan Morrison is a better option…at least Morrison has some potential upside. Ben Kerr (LWOS) does a great analysis of the Wells trade here. Not surprised that the Angels didn’t receive any real prospects from the Yankees in return since the Yankees don’t really have a top rated prospect. Michael Pineda is the best young player in the organization, and the last time he pitched in the majors he wasn’t even in pinstripes. May be I’m tainted by the frustration of watching Wells as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays, but I simply can’t see Wells doing anything but keep the bench warm for Curtis Granderson’s return. I didn’t think the Yankee’s roster could get worse with all of the injuries to the team, but I think it just did.
If you’re looking for a young arm to help out your rotation, you might want to consider Shelby Miller. The St. Louis Cardinals officially announced that Miller had won the 5th rotation spot over Joe Kelly. I’ve mentionned Miller in the past, but now it’s official. If your rotation includes guys like Ricky Romero, Anibal Sanchez or Wandy Rodriguez you might as well pick up Miller and take the upside value. Speaking of Romero, I woke up this morning to news that the Toronto Blue Jays have optioned him to Class-A Dunedin to work on his mechanics. The 28-year old isn’t the first Jays pitcher to go from the majors to Class-A. Former Cy Young winner Roy Halladay did the same thing to rebuild his mechanics in 2001, leading to his Cy Young title in 2003. Taking over for Romero in the Jays rotation is J.A. Happ, who has shown significant improvement during spring training.
Here is a look at MLB’s closer situation as we close out Spring Training 2013:
I previously looked at relievers and gave some analysis here last week.
|
TEAM |
CLOSER |
UNDERSTUDY 1 |
ANALYSIS |
|
Arizona |
J.J. Putz |
David Hernandez |
No Change |
|
Atlanta |
Craig Kimbrel |
Jordan Walden |
Walden moves into backup spot with Jonny Venters dealing with elbow issues |
|
Baltimore |
Jim Johnson |
Pedro Strop |
No Change |
|
Boston |
Joel Hanrahan |
Andrew Bailey |
No Change |
|
Chicago (NL) |
Kyuji Fujikawa |
Carlos Marmol |
I did this in advance of the move that the Cubs will be making. |
|
Chicago (AL) |
Addison Reed |
Matt Thornton |
No Change |
|
Cincinnati |
Aroldis Chapman |
Jonathan Broxton |
Chapman resumes the closer role, and Broxton moves into the setup role. |
|
Cleveland |
Chris Perez |
Vinnie Pestano |
No Change |
|
Colorado |
Rafael Betancourt |
Rex Brothers |
No Change |
|
Detroit |
Bruce Rondon |
Al Alburquerque |
Alburquerque has had a solid spring and could replace Rondon if the rookie falters. |
|
Houston |
Jose Veras |
Josh Fields |
Wesley Wright is replaced by Fields in the backup role. |
|
Kansas City |
Greg Holland |
Kelvin Herrera |
Aaron Crow is replaced by Herrera as the backup. |
|
Los Angeles (AL) |
Ernesto Frieri |
Scott Downs |
Ryan Madson is out until mid-April recovering from Tommy John Surgery. |
|
Los Angeles (NL) |
Brandon League |
Kenley Jansen |
No Change |
|
Miami |
Steve Cishek |
A.J. Ramos |
Jon Rauch is replaced by Ramos as the backup. |
|
Milwaukee |
John Axford |
Michael Olmstead |
Mike Gonzalez is replaced by Olmstead as the backup. |
|
Minnesota |
Glen Perkins |
Jared Burton |
No Change |
|
New York (NL) |
Bobby Parnell |
Brandon Lyon |
Frank Francisco remains doubtful for the start of the season. |
|
New York (AL) |
Mariano Rivera |
David Robertson |
No Change |
|
Oakland |
Grant Balfour |
Ryan Cook |
No Change |
|
Philadelphia |
Jonathan Papelbon |
Mike Adams |
No Change |
|
Pittsburgh |
Jason Grilli |
Mark Melancon |
No Change |
|
St. Louis |
Mitchell Boggs |
Trevor Rosenthal |
Jason Motte is having elbow issues is likely out until mid-April. |
|
San Diego |
Houston Street |
Luke Gregerson |
No Change |
|
San Francisco |
Sergio Romo |
Javier Lopez |
Javier Lopez is replaced by Santiago Casilla in the backup role. |
|
Seattle |
Tom Wilhelmsen |
Carter Capps |
Stephen Pryor replaced by Capps in the backup role. |
|
Tampa Bay |
Fernando Rodney |
Jake McGee |
Joel Peralta is replaced by McGee in the backup role. |
|
Texas |
Joe Nathan |
Jason Frasor |
No Change |
|
Toronto |
Sergio Santos |
Steve Delabar |
Santos will likely get the call to start the season with Casey Janssen still recovering from his shoulder surgery. Delabar assumes the backup role. |
|
Washington |
Rafael Soriano |
Drew Storen |
No Change |
NOTE: Last night I participated in the M-E League, a league that has been in existence since my days at Carleton University. All of the members of the league are former Carleton graduates and the league is maintained with a bit of reverance for our league’s history. And yes, this is the league my buddy Matt B. claims to have won 8 times (I can’t be bothered to argue this). Although after last night’s draft I don’t think Matt is going to have too much bragging to do this summer. Now there are many things that can happen during a draft (i.e. getting booted from an online draft room), but what happened to Matt was even more funny because for years he had been teasing me about a terrible draft I had several years ago. The short of that story is that I was going to miss the draft and had pre-ranked my players. Somehow, the site didn’t accept my rankings and when the draft happened, somehow it autodrafted Joe Mays (then with the Minnisota Twins) with my #1 pick. From that day on, Jae Mays has been a reference to me and that draft pick when it comes to fantasy baseball discussions. Well, Matt suffered the same fate, except he had planned to have a proxy to draft for him. Unfortunately, the proxy could not draft under the “co-manager” settings of Yahoo!, so Matt’s draft plans probably went out the window. Suffice to say, the autodraft was much kinder to Matt by selecting Yoenis Cespedes for him with his first pick (this is a keeper league, with 4 keeper rounds prior to the first official pick). The auto draft continued for several rounds, and unfortunately landed Roy Halladay as the ace of his staff. Karma is a bitch sometimes.
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