2009 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers: Starting Pitchers

In Fantasy Baseball starting pitching is one of the hardest things to predict. Starting Pitchers come out of nowhere every year to post good stats and every year at least one or two potential "aces" falter. And let's not fail to mention the mass amount of pitchers in between whose skills either regress or get knocked out of action due to injury. Well, alas I am here Rich Conroy, the biggest tool at the toolbox, to give you ten sleepers who may very well pitch better than their draft position would indicate in 2009.

1. Josh Johnson, FLA
Coming off of Tommy John surgery, Johnson finished with a stat line of 7-1 with a 3.61 ERA and 77 K's in 14 starts to end the season. With surgery far behind him and a career stat line of 19-11 with a 3.54 ERA I look for Johnson to be an absolute stud at the top of the Marlins rotation. Look for this 6'7 right-hander to finish as a top 25 starter that you can get as late as a top 50 starter. He is also humble too as is shown in this quote from yahoo sports "I came in here with the attitude that I need to come win a job, like I was a minor-leaguer, just so I don't take anything for granted and go through the motions. I want to come in here and work hard and get ready for the season."

2. Chris Young, SD
Young had an uneven season in 2008 where he went 7-6 with a 3.96 ERA. He was in the process of putting up a season to match his breakout year in 2007 when he got hit in May he got hit in the face by an Albert Pujols line drive and missed an extended period of time. After serving a stint on the 15-day DL he was never the same pitcher he was at the beginning of the season. Look for a huge rebound season from him this year especially pitching in the friendly confines of Petco Park.

3. Jonathan Sanchez, SF
Sanchez had problems with control last year but was still able to post a 8.94 K/9 rating in 2008. Sanchez is set up to succeed this season pitching in the low pressure fifth rotation spot behind Lincecum, Cain, Johnson and Zito. He also is protected by the pitching friendly confines of AT&T Park. 2009 will go a long way in figuring out if Sanchez is the next Edison Volquez, a high strikeout pitcher who found a way to harness his control, or Daniel Cabrera, a high strikeout pitcher who never did. However if anyone is poised for a Volquez like break out this year, it is Jonathan Sanchez.

4. Manny Parra, MIL
Parra started the year off red hot in 2008 going 8-2 with a 3.78 ERA in his first 19 appearances but started to slow down towards the end with a 5.32 ERA in his last 13. This is a normal thing for young pitchers as they often wear down as the season goes on. Look for Parra to be better prepared this year and with slugger-heavy lineup to provide run support, 15 wins or more is not out of the realm of possibility. Parra is a top 35 talent that you can surely draft a heck of a lot later.

5. Mark Buehrle, CWS
Buehrle has a lot of detractors out there that say that Buehrle's skills are declining as evidenced from a rising WHIP and low strikeout totals the last few seasons. But I'll give you another number to look at. 24. 24 is the number of quality starts that Buehrle had last season. Only CC Sabathia, Tim Lincecum and Johan Santana had more quality starts last season which is pretty elite company if I do say so myself. You can also look and see that his strikeout totals have gone up in the last three years from 98 in 2006, 115 in 2007 to 140 in 2008. If Buehrle can push himself up to the 150-160 K levels of his prime he could be a top 15 starting pitcher granted that he could potentially win 18 games with the run support from a deep White Sox lineup. He will be one of the biggest bargains of the year.