The Risky Trio

http://www.bringingheat.com/2009/12/the-risky-3.html

These three guys perfectly exemplify the idea of high risk and high reward in Major League Baseball. The following players all have the ability and track record to be completely dominant starting pitchers. Weighed against them, however, are their individual injury histories. It seems that they are consistently battling the disabled list almost as often as they’re battling to get opposing hitters out…

Rich Harden

Rich has been slowly trying to shake his “injury-prone” moniker the past two seasons, and for good reason: He’s actually made 25 starts or more in back-to-back seasons. The main complaint against him is that he only averaged 5.4 innings per start last year. This is due to the fact that his manager didn’t want to push his pitch count, and this is complicated further by him being a major strike-out pitcher. He struck out 10.9 batters per nine innings, which is an elite rate.

Still, Harden regressed slightly in 2009, mainly because of how unbelievable he was in 2008. His ERA of 2.07 in 25 starts speaks for itself.

Rich is still 28-years-old. Although he has had a troubled history of nagging injuries, his best years may still be ahead of him (although eventually they might be coming out of the bullpen).

He was paid $7M by the Cubs this past season, and he will very likely look to match or improve upon that number in 2010 with a multi-year deal. The Seattle Mariners look to be the front-runner in the race to sign Harden, with the Red Sox chasing right behind them.

Ben Sheets

Sheets had become a figure as a dominant pitcher in Milwaukee since 2004. In that ‘04 season, he had a whopping 264 K’s with a 2.70 ERA. Seriously, he had a .98 WHIP. That is just unheard of. Yet since his record was 12-14 on the poor-offensive Brewer club, he was massively unappreciated. It’s nice to see this concept is almost gone when the best pitchers in MLB right now, Lincecum and Greinke, are winning Cy Young awards while getting little to no run support.

The issue with any team signing Sheets now, most obviously, is that he has just missed the entire 2009 season due to elbow surgery. If he has a strong off-season of workouts, any team in baseball would love to have a very cheap, potential Ace in the hole with big Ben Sheets.

The Rangers have had connections with signing Sheets this offseason, and Texas could use a front-line starter, at least as long as Ben can make it to the mound healthy.

Erik Bedard

Some of us were lucky enough to have Erik Bedard on our fantasy baseball teams the year he just went crazy on the American League. In his 2007 season he piled up 221 strikeouts in only 28 starts. That’s not even mentioning his sterling 1.08 WHIP and 3.16 ERA with a surprising 13-5 record on the lowly Orioles.

After his fantastic season, he was traded to the Mariners for a package worthy of the Ace-type season he has just put up. Too bad the Mariners only saw Bedard put up consecutive 15-start seasons as he struggled to stay off the Disabled list. Still, while Bedard did play, he put up quality production. In 2009, he only pitched 83 innings, but still managed to strikeout 90 batters and score a 2.82 ERA

It looks like the Mariners won’t be offering arbitration to Erik for the 2010 season, so he will be free to sign with a team in the near future. Yet as usual, Bedard will be missing a portion of the upcoming season already, based off of his most recent shoulder surgery.

As with all three of these starters, offering Bedard an incentive-laden deal would suit any team with some extra cash well. His upside as an elite pitcher at the highest professional level is still intact in that very fragile body of his.