2011 Fantasy Baseball Pitching Preview: Jered Weaver and the Los Angeles Angels

In preparation of the 2011 MLB Fantasy Baseball season, The Fantasy Fix team will preview a team's pitching rotation each day.

In this second American League West preview, Chris Summers discusses Jered Weaver and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Last season, the Angels lost their normal perch atop the AL West and their annual trip to the postseason; things really don’t look too much better this season.

The rest of the AL either caught up or passed the Angels over the last year, and I’m not sure the addition of Vernon Wells is going to be enough to overcome the slide. True, Kendry Morales will hopefully be fully recovered from his Martin Gramatica-esque injury.

Despite these limited additions—and it pains me to say this—Mike Scioscia is a great manager who can squeeze every last ounce of talent from his players, so you can’t count out the Angels as a team or their individual players. It’s true that aside from Jered Weaver, this staff has a lot of question marks, but with Scioscia at the helm, the Angels and their pitchers could be a surprise.

Jered Weaver had an excellent season last year. He ranked sixth in fantasy, second in quality starts, third in the AL in WHIP, fifth in the AL in ERA and first in AL in strikeouts. He improved in all statistical areas except for wins and losses over the previous season.

Jered was amazingly consistent last year, as his ERA was never more than 3.66 in any month. With the Angels sliding as a team, Jered stands to slide back with them, probably ranking somewhere in the teens this year.

One other bad thing about Weaver—(paraphrasing Top Gun) “his name isn’t the best in baseball”—is that you can’t really feel too comfortable with anyone having the same genes as Jeff Weaver. Fortunately for fantasy owners, he’s proven very consistent during his tenure with the Angels: double-digit wins every season, reducing his ERA each of the last two seasons and consistent strikeout numbers.

There’s no reason to believe that Weaver won’t continue to be a consistent force in 2011. 

Dan Haren...

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