I thought Mays was supposed to be the top contender for #5 in the MN rotation? not arguing, just trying to be sure - can you please clarify re: Mullholland, Balfour, Mays, etc:
Mays had a whole slew of elbow problems before going under the knife for Tommy John Surgery. He also had a couple setbacks during his rehab late last summer. He only recently began throwing from a mound again. Supposedly, he will be ready when camp opens, but I think that's overly optomistic. There is no guarentee he'll be pitching competatively come April, and he still has to win a spot on the major league roster. I doubt he'll be as effective as either Balfour or Baker. Of course, the Twins are notorious for stranding good, young players in long relief or the minors for overextended periods of time, so it is possible either Balfour, Baker, or even the darkhorse Durbin could have to watch some stiff like Mays or Mulholland get beaten like they stole something every fifth day.
One plus to Balfour, is that if he isn't in the rotation, he'll definately be in the pen, posting more than a strike-out an inning. Well worth the last pick in a draft, or a $1 bid at auction.
A's offense has been upgraded considerably. A's bullpen has been upgraded tremendously.
now, if haren pitches good enough to make it on a "draftable sleeper pitcher" list...how does this equate to marginal win totals; with a large upgrade to an offense that was able to lead the A's to 91 victories a season ago?
and for the record i would hardly call haren a K pitcher anyway... his minor league K #'s were strong at 8.77 but converting that number to the majors puts him just about where he is now with a career k/9 at 5.69
based off that #, if he averages 5-6 innings over the course of the year, you'll get roughly 3K's/game. (3 being "high" adding in potential/progression)
If we wanted to find some real K sleepers we could do alot better than haren.
Haren is more aptly a "win" sleeper than a "K" sleeper.
I wouldn't say the bullpen has been upgraded that significantly. They lost Hammond, their ERA leader from a year ago, who also was a left-hander. True, they did add some quality arms but without Mulder and Hudson to eat up innings the bullpen will be used more, negating any increase in talent.
And since when has batting average counted? Especially in Oakland!
I did mention guys hitting for over .290 how could I forget about Chavez? The guy with the whopping .277 career average who hit .276 last year. Most definitely a candidate for the batting title. I was talking about guys who needed to step it up and guys who would probably hit over .290. Chavez fell under neither category. You must've been too cool for school because you definitely didn't follow.
And since when has batting average counted? Especially in Oakland!
I did mention guys hitting for over .290 how could I forget about Chavez? The guy with the whopping .277 career average who hit .276 last year. Most definitely a candidate for the batting title. I was talking about guys who needed to step it up and guys who would probably hit over .290. Chavez fell under neither category. You must've been too cool for school because you definitely didn't follow.
If Bonderman still counts as a sleeper, then yup. He could get you a lot of K's. I also like these guys late in a draft:
Weaver
Webb
Pineiro
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by sockeye » Sun Feb 13, 2005 12:58 pm 
