Sleeper of the Week

One rule that many fantasy baseball owners live by is: Never draft a Colorado pitcher. And that’s sound advice. The thin air of Coors Field can ruin your WHIP and ERA faster than you can say “Blake Street Bombers.” Yet to every rule there is an exception, and this year that exception might be Chin-hui Tsao.

Last season, of course, those who figured that they could pick up a few cheap saves by drafting the Rockies’ stopper found themselves paying a far higher price than they had bargained for. Shawn Chacon did record 35 saves in 2004, but his ERA of 7.11 and his 1.94 WHIP were bitter pills to swallow.

That’s not to say that closers can’t have success in Colorado. In 2002, Jose Jimenez posted a solid WHIP of 1.19 and an ERA of 3.56 en route to racking up 41 saves. Jimenez’ value for that season was in the $16 range in 12-team mixed 5×5 leagues, comparable to that of 18-game winner Tom Glavine, for example. Owners who took a late-round flyer on Jimenez picked up one of the year’s top bargains.

This year, Tsao is expected to take over the closer’s role, although the Rockies may well go with a committee approach while the 23-year-old righty adjusts to life in the bullpen. Can Tsao succeed in following in Jimenez’ footsteps? It’s too soon to tell, but he clearly has strong stuff. His minor league totals are gaudy, featuring a 1.10 WHIP over five seasons, a 2.75 ERA, a 1.16 K/IP mark and an immensely impressive 4.61 K/BB ratio. If he played for any other team, he might be considered one of the top young pitching prospects in the game.

Unfortunately, however, Chin-hui Tsao will play half his games in the pitchers’ nightmare that is Coors Field, and any projections of his 2005 numbers are risky at best. Yet with Shawn Chacon’s 2004 statistics still fresh in our memories, Tsao will cost next to nothing in many drafts, limiting the risk of picking him up. Don’t expect him to anchor your bullpen, but don’t overlook him as a potential source of inexpensive saves, either.