After last season, the Milwaukee Brewers offered arbitration to Ben Sheets in an effort to retain him even though he was recovering from an elbow injury. Sheets declined their offer and in doing so declared himself a free agent and was likely to sign a lucrative deal with another team ($10 - $15 Million). Unfortunately, he apparently was not aware that his sore elbow was because of torn flexor tendon in his ailing elbow. How he didn't know his elbow still hurt prior to declining the Brewers offer, I don't know but that little moment of painlessness has cost Sheets and fantasy owners. He had surgery on his elbow on Feb. 13th and is slated to return near mid-season. This little injury also makes him practically un-singable until after the June amateur draft because any team that signs him, except the Brewers, will forfeit a draft pick because of the arbitration offer.
Currently, Sheets has been rehabbing his arm near his residence in Dallas with Rangers team doctor Keith Meister at a facility actually owned by the Rangers. The Rangers, along with the Yankees, Brewers, Mets, and a few others teams, were interested in signing the hard-throwing right hander prior to the diagnosis on his elbow. Sheets and Brewers GM Doug Melvin have stated that a return to the Brewers is unlikely as there seemed to be some animosity with Sheets and the Brewers. This leads me to believe that the Rangers will be the team he signs with after the 2009 amateur draft as it goes with the aforementioned information of his rehab, residence, as well as the Rangers needing pitching. When healthy, Sheets is a bona-fide ace and even half a year of Sheets is likely worth more than a decent #3 pitcher. The problem is that since Sheets stupidly turned down Milwaukee's arbitration offer and likely won't sign with a team until mid-season he has no team to disable him therefore he will be a labeled "Not Active" for half the season. So, he is a dead spot on any fantasy team until he signs with a team and is listed on their disabled list.
if your roster has some wiggle room come early/mid-June, you should stash him away. assuming a steady stream of positive news about his health, of course
i'd say he's worth the risk, though pitching in Texas... .
There is really no point in adding Sheets unless your league is exceptionally deep. Stashing guys on the DL who won't come back until August is always rough, never mind a guy who will burn a valuable roster spot until July. I'd much rather have the roster flexibility to grab other guys than waiting forever on a savior.
What other injury comps are there for Sheets? Torn flexor tendon is something I'm not as familiar with and the only comp that comes to mind is Jason Jennings. And that is a comp that has had any success. As far as I know we're not talking TJ surgery (or even labrum/rotator cuff surgery) success rates here although there is a shorter recovery time.
I agree he's valueless, I don't think that you can even stash him on the DL since he's not on a team so no IRL team has him on their DL, unless maybe your commissioner will let you do the deal off the books or something like that?
In a CBS league which im commisioner of, a team has him. I used Commisioners perogative and put him on dl for them. Sometimes you have to use common sense. By same token ,team has Pedro but im not putting him on DL.
Pochucker wrote:In a CBS league which im commisioner of, a team has him. I used Commisioners perogative and put him on dl for them. Sometimes you have to use common sense. By same token ,team has Pedro but im not putting him on DL.
My league has a strict rule...if they are not on the official DL of a MLB team they can not go on the fantasy DL. Same applies to players not on an MLB roster like Strasburg or Dirvish. All three would need to take up a reserve roster slot.
Cafe Home
Fantasy Football
Fantasy Basketball
Fantasy Hockey
by Havok1517 » Sun Apr 05, 2009 1:47 am 
.
/charlie1.gif)
