Fantasy Baseball 2012: Yu Darvish, Johan Santana Improve Trade Stock with Gems

It's not too late for fantasy owners to make a reasonable trade play for starting pitchers Yu Darvish and Johan Santana, but the door is closing on both opportunities rather quickly.

On Tuesday, the high-profile arms combined for 21 strikeouts and led their respective teams to crucial victories. In just a four-hour span, both pitchers took significant steps forward in the fantasy realm, simply by living up to sky-high expectations—a testament to being injury free and/or comfortable with their surroundings.

Facing the Marlins and dueling against Miami's ace Josh Johnson, Santana fanned 11 hitters in six and two-thirds innings while allowing only one run, two walks and three hits. Of equal importance, it was Santana's longest start of the season, and it occurred on a night when temperatures in New York City were brisk.

At age 33 and with a history of arm and shoulder maladies, Santana is neither immune from the occasional clunker nor getting some extra rest during the season. For example, Santana (3.00 ERA, 1.22 WHIP) has logged six, six and seven days off between starts, a trend that will likely continue into the summer months.

Santana's fantasy upgrade comes on a per-start basis. In head-to-head leagues where he might have no more than five two-start weeks all year, there's no reason to bump Johan into the top 40 or go all-in on a blockbuster trade (with Santana as the centerpiece). But at the very least, Santana has earned the right to avoid the revolving-door process that owners sometimes implement when searching for a new starter at the same roster slot three or four times per week.

Bottom line: If you dump Santana tomorrow, don't expect him to be available four days from now. He's the ideal No. 4 or 5 starter in mixed leagues.

Darvish's monumental step came against the vaunted Yankees lineup. He registered 10 strikeouts (his MLB high) and allowed just nine baserunners in eight and two-thirds innings. It was the first outing where Darvish (3-0, 2.42 ERA, 1.58 WHIP) didn't surrender four walks and it was also the first time Yu took on the traits of a fantasy ace...bridging the gap between himself and closer Joe Nathan with no bullpen assistance.

Darvish's Japanese League numbers (76-28, 1.72 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, 1,083/221 K-BB ratio over 1,024 innings, 50 complete games) were so amazing, so prolific, that 14 wins and 190 strikeouts back in February may have been an underwhelming estimate.

But now, my reconfigured projections call for 16 wins and 208 strikeouts—essentially an American League homage to Adam Wainwright circa 2009-10, minus the pinpoint control.

Before Tuesday night, trade seekers could have garnered Darvish or Santana for 70-80 cents on the dollar, but now it'll take some creativity to pull off a move that bolsters a pitching staff but doesn't devalue the hitting core.

Santana Trade Market

1-for-1: Nick Swisher or Billy Butler or Alexei Ramirez
2-for-1: Santana/Brett Lawrie for Adrian Beltre
2-for-2: Santana/Justin Upton for Jayson Werth/Josh Beckett

Darvish Trade Market

1-for-1: Asdrubal Cabrera or Desmond Jennings or Dan Uggla
2-for-1: Darvish/Michael Bourn for Evan Longoria
3-for-3: Darvish/Buster Posey/Drew Stubbs for Yovani Gallardo/Adam Jones/Dee Gordon

Jay Clemons can be reached on Twitter, day or night, at @ATL_JayClemons.