Starting Pitching Blues: Fantasy Strategy

Rany Jazayerli, one of the baseball minds over at Baseball Prospectus, said in 1998:

"The injury rate of pitchers, in particular young pitchers, is astonishing. Pitchers are several times more likely to get injured than hitters, and for every prospect that becomes a successful major league pitcher, a dozen more have their careers stalled or ended by injury.

"This is a reality of baseball that has persisted since the game was invented; the act of throwing a ball overhand is inherently unnatural, and the repetition of throwing, even with excellent mechanics, can lead to inflammation or injury to the muscles of the rotator cuff, or in the ligaments that hold the elbow in place."

Spring Training isn't even in full swing yet and there are already injuries to report for the 2008 season. Not surprisingly, they are injuries to starting pitchers, the most important and concurrently brittle parts of baseball organizations today.

Kelvim Escobar and Curt Schilling, important arms from two of baseball's deepest, most talented rotations, are going to miss time in 2008 due to injury. There hasn't been a pitch thrown in the Cactus League or the Grapefruit League and there's already talk about a DL stint for Escobar and a prolonged absence for Schilling, if he's not done for the season.

Fantasy owners need to be mindful of the inherent danger of drafting starting pitchers, which is unlike any risk that drafting a position player presents. By the nature of what they do, pitchers are just never more than one pitch away from the operating table. Throwing a baseball is simply an unnatural motion that will lead to problems for almost all pitchers at some point.

In real baseball, teams need good starting pitching if they want to have any chance at postseason success. That bulldog ace can be the difference in losing a series in six games and winning it in seven. Those 14-15 innings over two starts can make a world of difference in baseball playoffs, but fantasy baseball just isn't set up like that.

In fantasy baseball, teams obviously need starting pitching, but owners do not need to invest early picks (or big dollars for auctions) in pitching to win fantasy leagues. An owner can succeed with a big bullpen and three decent arms anchoring the pitching staff.

The beauty of fantasy is that Yahoo or ESPN doesn't care where those seven innings of two-run ball come from. They can just as easily come from three middle relievers taken in the 15th round or later, or they can come from Jake Peavy. The Padres can't throw Heath Bell out there 162 times a year, but your fantasy rotation can be built of Heath Bell types that end up putting together solid ratios in 70 or so innings.

Those 70 innings each from a few relievers pile up, and one can put together spectacular ERA, WHIP, and saves totals, while still being competitive in strikeouts and wins.

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