Courtesy of FantasyRundown.com
Both a signing and a trade made baseball headlines on New Year's Eve: The Cubs traded Mark DeRosa to the Indians for three minor league pitchers, and the Angels signed Brian Fuentes.
I am sure you can go to many sites and find plenty of fantasy analysis discussing how these moves will affect both the teams and players involved. But my first thought was that there are two new sleepers to keep on your radar on draft day: Jason Motte and Mike Fontenot.
Jason Motte, St. Louis Cardinals
How does the Brian Fuentes signing affect a Cardinals relief pitcher? Well, Fuentes was really the only viable closer left on the market, unless a team wants to take a shot on Trevor Hoffman.
Having heard St. Louis is not likely to pursue Hoffman, this leaves the back of the Cardinals bullpen shaping up as Chris Perez, Ryan Franklin, and my guy Jason Motte.
Very few people outside of St. Louis had ever heard of Jason Motte prior to his late season call up in 2008. Motte, a former catcher, features a mid-to-high 90s fastball with a decent slider and was very successful in his debut last season.
In extremely limited duty in St. Louis, Motte gave up only one earned run in 11 innings, posting a 16/3 K/BB ratio. This was after striking out 110 batters in only 66.2 innings at AAA Memphis (a ridiculous 14.85K/9IP).
If the season started today, Chris Perez would likely be given the first crack at the ninth inning in St. Louis. But with his propensity to walk hitters (22 BBs in 41.2 IP), he is no lock to hold the job all season.
Sure, Ryan Franklin saved 17 games last season. But that was out of pure necessity, not because he was best suited to close. So that leaves Jason Motte.
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