Mound Talk

The saying goes: You can’t win your fantasy league in the first five rounds of the draft, but you can lose it. It’s hard to mess up the first few rounds. With the exception of drafting with Red Sox Fan Boy who picks Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz and Diasuke Matsuzaka in the first three rounds, and follows it up with a declaration of “Championship!” in that thick Boston accent, neither will your opponents. Smart drafting isn’t taking Pujols #1. Smart drafting comes in the later stages of the draft. To that end is what everyone knows as “the sleeper.” Everyone has their favorite sleeper and everyone knows the sleeper who is on every fantasy website and publication (we’ll mention Dave Bush too) and these are the guys who can make a huge difference for your fantasy team. Nabbing Jeremy Bonderman last year would have been a huge benefit. But if he turned out to be as beneficial as Kerry Wood, it wouldn’t have hurt much because he was such a low draft pick. To that end, we are introducing our sleeper series. Some will probably be recieved well (popular choice, Dave Bush) some will not (you’ll have to wait and see) and each installment will look for an more well known sleeper (Mark Teahen) and a less well known sleeper choice (Nelson Cruz).

Dave Bush. You can read about how great Dave Bush is and will be on every fantasy baseball website. Ours is no differnt. I picked up on Bush earlier last season when a rash of injuries devastated my team. Liking Bush is easy. He threw 210 innings last season and will be 27 this season. The reasons to like him are simple: His peripherals indicate that he should have been a lot better than he was last year. He led the National League in in SO:BB with 4.37! He was 4th in the league in WHIP and BB/9. Basically, he doesn’t put many runners on base. Yet, he racked up an ERA of 4.41 and only amassed 12 wins. Expect his ERA to plummett and him to become a very big surprise.

Nelson Cruz. Cruz is your last round gamble that could pay off big time this season. The career .291 minor league hitter took the long way to Texas by stopping in the Mets, A’s and Brewers organizations before landing a full-time gig in Arlington. Between Triple-A Nashville and Texas last season, Cruz mashed 26 home runs and stole 18 bases. He strikes out a bit too much to think he can be a positive contributor to batting average but he’s got the potential to make for a great late pick.